Memories
by thefruitsofmysoul
Summary: Everyone has a defining set of memories that altered the course of who they ended up becoming. Not all of these memories are instantly remembered, being unearthed at a time when everything - every life event - seems to click into place, and others never to be remembered again. This is a story of the lucky memories that do resurface, courtesy of the Hastingses and the DiLaurentises.
1. Alison

**A/N: With the ending of PLL, I've decided to rewrite some of this story to include Alex Drake. The chapters for Jason, Charlotte, and Melissa will also have some of those changes in due time. Thanks for your patience!**

* * *

It wasn't all the time that Alison DiLaurentis found herself wondering if she was telling the truth. Often times, she knew the difference, as the choice was deliberate. When she lied, it was purposeful and when she told the truth, she knew just how much she was willing to divulge. She knew how much her lies hurt people, and often reminisced to a time when the only care she had in the world was playing with her older siblings and maintaining friendships. After going through all she had with A, she vowed to be the honest person she used to be before her parents' malignant influence got to her. In the process, she had gained an older sister and a potential girlfriend, so it was safe to say that she wouldn't be letting her lies continue to ruin her relationships.

 ** _Age 2_**  
 _"Momma, where we going?" a two-year-old Alison asked her mother, Jessica, as she loaded her and her older brother, Jason, into the back of her minivan._  
 _Jessica smiled, albeit a little sadly, as she fastened her own seatbelt, pulling out of the driveway of the DiLaurentis home._  
 _"We're going to see your brother Charlie."_  
 _Alison's brows furrowed in confusion. Brother? But Jason was sitting right next to her._  
 _"We're gonna see Charlie?" eight-year-old Jason squealed excitedly, almost bouncing in his seat with his enthusiasm, "I thought dad said…"_  
 _"Never mind what your father said." Jessica said tightly, a small frown threatening to mar the smile that still remained on her lips, "It's been almost a year since Charlie has seen us and I want him to spend time with you…the both of you."_  
 _Jessica paused._  
 _"Let me worry about your father."_  
 _Jason shrugged, as was his normal way, but Alison was still curious. Who was this Charlie? And how was he her brother if she'd only seen Jason at home?_  
 _Lost in her thoughts, Alison hadn't noticed that her mother had begun to park the car, stopping in front of a large building._  
 _RADLEY SANITARIUM_  
 _The long words perplexed Alison and made Jason squint in confusion._  
 _"Mom," Jason started, pointing at the large sign, "What's a sanit…santa…san…"_  
 _"A sanitarium, Jason," Jessica begun as she got her two young children out of the car, "is a place that I never want to see either you or your sister in."_  
 _Holding Alison in one arm and Jason's hand with her other hand, Jessica made her way into the building, stopping to speak with a receptionist._  
 _"I'd like to see Charles DiLaurentis please. You know how this goes."_  
 _Alison stopped paying attention as her mom spoke with the boring people in weird clothing. Why did people have to wear such baggy clothing anyways? Jason's loud scream, however, was what pulled her out of her short musings._  
 _"CHARLIE!"_  
 _Alison turned around in her mother's arms just in time to see Jason fiercely hugging a blond boy, just slightly taller than he was. When they pulled back from each other, Alison was able to see him more clearly._  
 _Blond hair. Gray-blue eyes. A bright grin, yet a confident, playful demeanor. He reminded Alison so much of Jason, yet Jason, this was not._  
 _Alison barely registered that her mother had placed her on the ground until she felt herself being gently nudged in Charlie's direction._  
 _"This is your oldest brother Charlie." Jessica smiled warmly after hugging Charlie for herself, relishing in how tightly he clung to her, as if he weren't too upset with her for his current predicament, "Say hi."_  
 _Charlie turned his bright gray-blue eyes to Alison, his grin becoming even wider. He bent down to her level and hugged her close to him. Slowly, Alison hugged him back._  
 _"Hi Ali." Charlie whispered into her ear, pulling back slightly so he could look at her, face to face, "I'm your big brother Charlie."_  
 _Alison was silent for a moment, causing Charlie's smile to falter in the slightest._  
 _"Say something Ali." Jason urged, "You're not shy."_  
 _Tilting her head to the side in a manner that was utterly DiLaurentis-like, Alison smiled, launching herself into her newly acquired brother's arms._  
 _"I love you Charlie!"_  
 _Charlie beamed and Alison found herself smiling widely as Jason joined the sibling embrace, none of the trio noticing the silent tears that ran down their mother's face. Composing herself once more, Jessica turned to her children._  
 _"Why don't we go apple picking today?" she suggested, leading her children out of Radley, "Alison hasn't been yet."_  
 _"Pick apples?" Alison asked, confusion written on her features, "How?"_  
 _Charlie grasped her hand in his and smiled._  
 _"Don't worry about it Ali." he grinned, "I'm an expert at apple picking. I'll teach you."_  
 _Jason quickly latched onto his sister's other hand, not wanting to be left out._  
 _"I'll help too!"_  
 _The day passed by in a blur for Alison as she played with her two big brothers, having more fun than she'd ever imagined she could have in her short two-year-old life. So when it was time for Charlie to go back to Radley, Alison found herself clutching Charlie's hand desperately in her own, sapphire orbs filled with tears._  
 _"Stay Charlie!" she whined, "Can't leave now! You're big brother!"_  
 _Off to the side, Jason shuffled his feet, already anticipating his brother's impending departure. If he didn't look at his brother, he could pretend that he wasn't leaving him again, that he would always just be a few steps away._  
 _Forcing a smile, Charlie bent down to his little sister's level, looking into her eyes earnestly._  
 _"Don't worry Ali." he said softly, tucking a loose strand of hair behind his sister's ear, "We'll always find our way back to each other."_

 ** _Age 4_**  
 _When Alison was four years old, she met four girls who would remain lifelong friends of hers. Their names were Spencer Hastings, Aria Montgomery, Hanna Marin, and Emily Fields. She was unaware of just how difficult her friendship with the girls would get in years to come, but at four years old, she was just happy to have friends her own age to play with her, as her older brother Jason didn't play with her often._

 _Alison knew Spencer vaguely, as she was her next-door neighbor but until age four, they didn't really interact. As a result, when it was time for lunch one day, Spencer was the first person she approached._

 _"Can I sit with you?" Alison asked hesitantly, fearing that she wouldn't be welcomed._

 _Spencer gave her a small nod, gesturing for her to sit down. Alison smiled gratefully as she took the seat._

 _"My name is Alison." she introduced, feeling the need to break the silence between the two of them._

 _"I know." Spencer said matter-of-factly, "My big sister Melissa knows your big brother Jason."_

 _Spencer paused._

 _"I'm Spencer Hastings." she finished as she remembered her manners._

 _Silence descended upon them again._

 _"What do you have for lunch?" Spencer asked her curiously._

 _"Peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You?"_

 _Spencer scrunched her nose up, the expression making Alison giggle._

 _"Tuna fish sandwich." she declared as she held the sandwich away from her, as if it had personally offended her, "I hate it but my mommy said it's good for me."_

 _Alison didn't want to see her new friend sad, so she came up with what she thought would be a good solution._

 _"Wanna trade?" she asked, "I don't mind it."_

 _Spencer gazed at her analytically, trying to determine if she was serious before shrugging._

 _"Your choice."_

 _With that, the two girls traded sandwiches, smiling at one another in camaraderie. Before long, three other girls approached them – a blonde, a black-haired brunette, and a brown-haired brunette._

 _"Can we sit with you guys?" the blonde asked, giving Spencer and Alison a wide grin, "I'm Hanna Marin and the girl with brown hair is my best friend Emily Fields. The other girl is our new friend Aria Montgomery. We met her today."_

 _Emily stared at Spencer and Alison shyly as she waited for their decision while Aria avoided their gazes. Spencer and Alison made eye contact before nodding._

 _"Sure."_

 _With that, the three newcomers joined Spencer and Alison. The awkward feeling that often came with meeting new people dissipated quickly and the five girls began chatting animatedly. When lunch was over and it was time for them to return to class for story time, the girls realized with delight that they were in the same class. Sitting next to each other on the rug, the five girls eagerly awaited the story that their teacher would tell._

 _"Let's always be friends." Hanna said to them quietly, not wanting the teacher to get upset with her for talking too loudly, "I like you guys."_

 _The other four girls were quick to agree, feeling more of a sense of belonging with each other than they did with others their age._

 _"And let's always tell each other the truth." Alison added, seriousness in her tone (after all, her brother Jason always told her that the truth would set her free), "No matter what."_

 _Though the five girls had agreed to the terms of their friendship, they were unaware of just how distorted the line between truth and lie would become over the years. Yet, Alison was just four years old, and she had all the hope in the world that she and her friends would always tell each other (and others) the truth._

 ** _Age 6_**  
 _"Ali, Jason, come play with me!" a thirteen-year old Freddie yelled with delight._  
 _With a wide grin on her face, Alison joined her cousin Freddie and her brother Jason in whatever game they were playing. Truth be told, Alison didn't care what they played. She just enjoyed spending time with her cousin Freddie._  
 _"Are you enjoying your birthday Char…Freddie?" Jason caught himself._  
 _His mother had reminded him repeatedly that this was not Charlie. This was his second cousin Freddie on his mother's side…no matter how much of a resemblance he bore to Charlie._  
 _'It's just the family genes Jason.' his mother had told him gently before their outing, keeping her voice down so her husband Kenneth wouldn't hear, 'People used to swear that I was Aunt Carol's daughter. That's how much we all look alike.'_  
 _Freddie smiled at Jason, nodding his head enthusiastically._  
 _"Best birthday ever!"_  
 _Had Alison been paying much attention to her mother, who insisted on filming the whole family – sans Kenneth – outing, she would've noticed the melancholic smile on Jessica's face. She never understood why her mother looked so sad every time Freddie, or Charlie for that matter, was mentioned._  
 _"Freddie come here." Jessica called._  
 _Alison watched as Freddie went over to talk to her mother. She couldn't hear much of the conversation from where she was._  
 _"Ali, stop eavesdropping!" Jason hissed quietly._  
 _"Shh!"_  
 _The slightly sad smile never dropped from Jessica's face as she habitu_ ally glanced at Alison and Jason, keeping them in her peripheral.  
 _"When do I have to go back?" Freddie asked Jessica softly._  
 _Go back? Go back where?_  
 _Before Alison could question it any further, Jason grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards the air hockey station._  
 _"I'm beating you at this." he declared, "Char…Freddie used to beat me at this all the time."_  
 _Though Jason had caught himself once more, Alison caught the slip-up. Why did Jason keep calling Freddie "Charlie?" The name Charlie rung a vague bell in her mind, but not enough to make her overly curious._  
 _Shrugging it off, Alison served the puck first. The game continued until the two siblings were tied, 6-6. Squinting her eyes in concentration, Alison lined herself up the take a shot._  
 _"You guys enjoying yourselves?"_  
 _At the sound of Freddie's voice, Alison startled, missing her shot and allowing Jason to score one on her._  
 _7-6._  
 _"I win." Jason said smugly, putting an arm around his little sister's shoulders, "I told you I would win."_  
 _"Where do you have to go back to?" Alison asked abruptly, remembering what she had overheard Freddie talking about with her mother._  
 _Freddie blinked. Jason face-palmed. Why did his sister have to be so nosy?_  
 _Getting over his initial shock, Freddie smiled, a twinkle in his gray-blue eyes._  
 _"Don't worry about it Ali." he murmured, gently placing a hand on her cheek, "We always find our way back to each other."_  
 _A sudden wave of nostalgia hit her. Someone had said those very same words to her once. She just couldn't remember who it was. Maybe it had something to do with this "Charlie" Jason kept going on about..._  
 ** _Age 8_**  
 _Alison couldn't figure out why this "Charlie" person was so taboo in her household. Every time Jason mentioned him, her father's face would go red with fury while her mother's face would go ashen._  
 _"But Charlie is real!" fourteen-year-old Jason yelled at their father, ignoring the tell-tale warning signs of Kenneth's fury, "I can't have imagined the first seven years of my life! I'm not crazy! You're the crazy one!"_  
 _Alison winced as she watched from the kitchen as her father grabbed a fistful of Jason's shirt, pulling him closer to him. Unafraid, Jason stared defiantly at their father._  
 _"You listen to me." Kenneth said darkly, glaring down at his son, "Charles is a figment of your imagination, an imaginary friend that you're too old to have. Stop this foolishness immediately!"_  
 _With that, Kenneth roughly pushed Jason away, straightened his own clothes, and left for work. Jason scowled after him and Alison felt it safe enough to come out of the kitchen._  
 _"Mom, why didn't you say anything?" Jason asked, whirling around to face his uncharacteristically quiet mother, "You know Charlie is real."_  
 _Jessica said nothing, reaching forward to place a hand on Jason's cheek, but he brushed her off._  
 _"You're just like dad." Jason said sadly, a disappointed look in his eyes, "Just like him. You know, I used to think you were better than him, but now…"_  
 _He shook his head, cutting himself off as he started for his room. It was then that he took notice of his little sister. A small look of hope in his eyes, he walked over to her._  
 _"You remember Charlie, don't you?" Jason asked her, almost pleading with her to remember something, anything._  
 _Alison desperately wanted to remember this Charlie, if only so her big brother didn't look so…empty all the time. Maybe if he were happier, he'd stop hanging out with those weird boys from school, Ian and Garrett._  
 _"I remember…cousin Freddie." Alison said hesitantly, knowing that wasn't exactly what Jason wanted to hear, but hoping he wouldn't be too disappointed._  
 _Surprisingly, Jason smiled at her, ruffling her hair. She was so happy that her brother was smiling for once that she didn't even care that he was messing up her French braid._  
 _"That'll have to do."_

 ** _Age 13_**  
 _At age 13, Alison DiLaurentis knew that she had a small (or maybe not so small) crush on her close friend Emily Fields. Whereas most girls her age, notably Aria and Hanna in their friend group, were fawning over the likes of Noel Kahn and Sean Ackard, Alison was able to appreciate the subtle beauty that her quiet friend possessed._

 _She wasn't oblivious to the looks that Emily gave her when she thought she wasn't looking, and she certainly wouldn't admit that she looked at her differently too. This is why when she found herself in the library with Emily, reading an excerpt from Great Expectations, a book they'd been assigned in English class, she couldn't help but be a bit nervous._

 _"I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be." Alison had read passionately, gazing into Emily's eyes intently as a small smile appeared on her lips, "Did you get to that part yet?"_

 _Emily didn't answer her verbally, instead leaning in to give her a small kiss on the lips before pulling back, smiling shyly. Alison only smiled gently in return, a sparkle in her cobalt eyes._

 _As she went home that day, Alison was determined to tell her dad, Kenneth DiLaurentis, about her potential feelings for Emily. After all, her dad had always been supportive of every endeavor she had pursued, so why would this be any different._

 _When she arrived home, she was surprised to see her dad sitting on the couch, attentively watching a television commercial. Usually, if it wasn't news related, Kenneth would change it to something that was._

 _"Dad…" she started before he cut her off, his eyes firmly planted on the television._

 _She noticed that the people in the commercial were wearing rainbow colored clothing and her father looked disgusted, but she didn't think anything of it until he finally addressed her._

 _"Alison." Kenneth started, staring at his daughter seriously, "I don't ever want you to be like…those people."_

 _Alison frowned, not understanding her father's words._

 _"Which people?"_

 _"Those flamboyant gays." Kenneth spat, unaware of how his daughter's heart sank, "I couldn't stand it if you turned into one of them. It's disgusting."_

 _Alison tried her best to keep her tears at bay as she nodded, not wanting her father to know how his words affected her._

 _"Now what did you want to tell me?" Kenneth smiled, content that he had gotten his sentiments off of her chest._

 _Alison shook her head._

 _"It's nothing much." Alison lied, "I just had a good day at school today."_

 _"I'm glad to hear that pumpkin." her father replied, placing a kiss on the top of her hair as he looked at his watch, "I have to start getting ready for work."_

 _With that, Kenneth left the room, leaving Alison alone with a heavy weight on her chest. It was the first time that Alison had lied about her sexuality, and she got the sinking feeling that it wouldn't be the last._

 ** _Age 15_**  
 _"I don't understand why you won't give my brother a chance, Ce." Alison said to her older friend and confidant, CeCe Drake, "He's been moping around the house ever since the last time you saw him. Did you turn him down or something?"_  
 _CeCe shrugged, but what caught Alison's attention was the slight look of guilt in her gray blue eyes. The look, however, was gone as swiftly as it appeared._  
 _"We weren't even like that Ali." CeCe reassured her friend, "He wanted to spend more time with me and I couldn't be the friend that he needed me to be. On that note, he's like…a brother to me."_  
 _"But Spencer said…"_  
 _CeCe stopped her friend with her laughter, startling her._  
 _"Spencer Hastings?" CeCe chortled, "Melissa Hastings' little sister? You assumed that I had a thing for your brother based on something Spencer said?"_  
 _Alison crossed her arms and huffed at her friend's laughter._  
 _"Melissa even confirmed it." she said, "She told me about you and Jason. Said that…it's not funny CeCe!"_  
 _CeCe, taking into account her friend's slight frustration, did her best to curb her laughter. Obviously, her efforts weren't enough, as Alison kept glaring at her._  
 _"I'm sorry," CeCe said through her remaining chuckles, "but you mean to tell me you're getting your info from Melissa Hastings? I didn't know you guys were friends."_  
 _Alison didn't reply, her cheeks burning in slight embarrassment as she realized how silly she sounded. She and Melissa weren't even friends, so why did she take her at her word?_  
 _Sensing that she wasn't going to get a reply, CeCe put an arm around her friend._  
 _"Don't even worry about it Ali." she murmured, "Melissa's just jealous."_  
 _Alison raised her eyebrows in shock._  
 _"Of you?" she scoffed in disbelief, "You mean to tell me that she's got the hots for Jason of all people? Her?"_  
 _Rolling her eyes, CeCe let her signature smirk grace her features, a twinkle of amusement in her gray-blue eyes._  
 _"You leave Melissa Hastings to me, hm? I know how she gets when she's jealous."_  
 _Alison stared at her, puzzled._  
 _"When did you become friends with her?"_  
 _CeCe only smiled._  
 _"Just leave it at…I know her." CeCe said simply, "I know her really, really well. Just as well as I know you."_  
 _Not knowing what to make of her friend's words, Alison shrugged. After all, why should it matter to her if CeCe was friends with Melissa Hastings? It's not like CeCe was too weak-willed to deal with a Hastings._  
 _"But if you're not hanging out with Jason, we won't be like a real family anymore." Alison tried not to pout, "It's not like you don't have your own life, and mom doesn't like it when you're around without Jason. It's like the woman has eyes everywhere. I'm barely out of her sight now as it is."_  
 _At this, CeCe flinched slightly, a fact that Alison would've missed entirely if she weren't so focused on her friend._  
 _"We always find our way back to each other." CeCe managed to say confidently, displaying none of the inner turmoil she was facing. It's not exactly like she could reveal her true family ties at the moment._  
 _A chill went down Alison's spine at her friend's words. Those words, the same words she'd heard all her life, were making their presence known once more. As she stared at CeCe, she couldn't help but wonder if her friend was close to, at the very least, the older boys who'd told her the same words long ago. Instead, she broached a different subject._  
 _"You never told me what CeCe was short for."_  
 _The corners of CeCe's lips turned upwards._  
 _"You're right, I didn't." she said matter-of-factly, "It's short for Charlotte."_  
 _"Charlotte D, huh?"_  
 _"Something like that." CeCe smiled, her features sad before her smirk came back full force, "Enough about me. What's going on with you and Girl Crush?"_

 _Alison's cheeks colored. Ever since she had told CeCe about the few kisses she had shared with Emily, the older blonde wouldn't stop referring to her as "Girl Crush."_

 _"I don't have a crush on her." Alison insisted, much to CeCe's amusement, "She's just my friend."_

 _CeCe snorted and Alison glared at her._

 _"So if Girl Crush reciprocated Pigskin's feelings, you wouldn't feel jealous in the slightest?"_

 _An unwanted feeling of jealousy rose inside Alison's chest. She didn't want to keep feeling this way about Emily; she didn't want to disappoint her father. At Alison's silence, CeCe offered her a sympathetic smile._

 _"Hey, I get it." CeCe murmured emphatically, "Your dad is ultra conservative. Mine was too and I'm sure that if he knew how I lived my life today, he'd be pissed. He'd hate my girlfriend…and me for that matter."_

 _CeCe chuckled to herself darkly._

 _"He already hates me."_

 _With that, Alison turned to look at her friend more carefully. She had noticed over the years that CeCe rarely, if ever, spoke about her own family. Not wanting to cause unease in her friend, Alison focused only on part of the sentence._

 _"You have a girlfriend and you didn't tell me?" she pouted before it clicked in her head._

 _No way._

 _She stared at CeCe in shock before the older girl rolled her eyes, murmuring a half-hearted "shut up."_

 _"You're dating Melissa Hastings?" Alison exclaimed before realizing that they were still in a public place, "Is that why you know her?"_

 _CeCe pursed her lips and didn't answer, humming to herself._

 _"Oh…my God." Alison breathed, "You're dating…"_

 _"Melissa Hastings. Yes, I am." CeCe said in amusement, "Try not to be so snide around her, would you? I'm the one who gets an earful every time you irritate her."_

 _Alison grinned at the idea of learning more about her close friend. She may not have been ready to admit her own sexuality, but hearing about CeCe's definitely helped._  
 ** _Age 17_**

 _"Having second thoughts?" CeCe asked her friend Alison._  
 _Alison shook her head. She wouldn't have entrusted her fake passport to her older friend if she was having second thoughts. She knew that had the situation been different, CeCe would've done the same for her._  
 _CeCe gave her a questioning look._  
 _"I'm just not sure when I'll see you again." Alison said softly._  
 _CeCe leaned towards her, an intense look in her gray-blue eyes._  
 _"Don't be so dramatic Ali." she said, trying to sound casual, "You know us. We always find our way back to each other."_  
 _Alison froze for a moment. There were those words again! Why did they appear in her life so often? What was the piece of the puzzle that she was missing?_  
 _"Is this the part where you guys kiss?" came Noel Kahn's smug voice, tearing Alison out of her thoughts. She had almost forgotten that Noel was with them._  
 _Both Alison and CeCe turned to Noel with a roll of their eyes, as if to say "Really?"_  
 _Noel shrugged._  
 _"Had to ask."_  
 _As Alison and CeCe stood up to say their goodbyes, Alison couldn't help but think that there was something undoubtedly familiar about the way CeCe hugged her. Sure, they'd hugged each other before but this one felt more…permanent. Almost as if they were getting ready to say goodbye for a long time…as if this were the calm before the storm._  
 _"Thank you." CeCe told her earnestly before walking briskly out of the diner, Alison and Noel watching her departure with keen eyes._  
 _Alison couldn't help but reminded of a time when she was younger, more carefree, and a young blond boy walked out of her life and into a large, ominous building with words too difficult for her to understand._

 _A while after CeCe left, Alison tried to focus on her relationship with the girls, specifically Emily._

 _When Alison was 17 years old, she still, unfortunately, was unable to be completely honest with those she cared about. Granted, she was honest in some regards, but in others, she just couldn't resist the urge to lie. She was an inevitable byproduct of the hatred that Kenneth DiLaurentis spewed, and all the secrets that Jessica DiLaurentis kept before her untimely death._

 _She remembered a night she spent in Emily's house in particular, after she had admitted that the brunette's feelings for her weren't entirely one-sided. Later that night, Alison had rolled away from Emily, trying in vain to go to sleep and not focus on the warm body beside her. She knew that they had a lot to talk about, with A, their feelings, and everything. Yet, Alison could admit that she was a coward. She was terrified at the prospect of the object of her affections rejecting her._

 _Luckily for her, in the time that Alison had been gone, Emily had gotten braver._

 _"Ali," Emily had whispered, rolling over to face the blonde, "are you asleep?"_

 _Alison froze, her eyes widened as she tried to curl in on herself. Maybe the brunette would think she was asleep. Remembering CeCe's courage in telling her about her own sexuality, Alison decided to take a page out of her book and face Emily._

 _For a while, the two of them said nothing, merely staring at each other in the moonlight. Alison noticed Emily stare at her lips before looking back up at her and before Alison could process the movement, Emily cupped her cheek and kissed her. At that moment, Alison's thoughts ceased to be coherent as she eagerly kissed Emily back. As Emily pulled back for some air, Alison lurched forward, capturing the other girl's lips between hers once more as she straddled her waist. In remembering that night, Alison remembered how gentle Emily was with her, how loved she felt afterwards as Emily held her close._

 _Unfortunately, as the saying goes, good things can't last forever._

 _After Alison had gotten into an altercation with Mona at Rosewood's only church, she had lied to Emily and the girls, insisting that Mona had struck her and she didn't retaliate. Of course, that backfired on her when Mona came to school one day, prepared with a video that would diminish Alison's reputation with both the girls and the majority of Rosewood High. The video showed Alison striking Mona, but failed to show Mona hitting her first. The girls, for the most part, iced her out, but mostly, her relationship with Emily suffered._

 _When she had tried to make amends with the brunette later in the evening, leaning in for a kiss, she was coldly brushed off._

 _"That's not going to fix it this time." Emily had said curtly before leaving the room._

 _Alison felt the prickle of tears in her eyes before brushing them away roughly. She had lied and gotten herself into this mess, and it was only right that she faced the consequences._

 _That didn't mean she had to like it._

 _A few months later, as Alison's relationship with the girls continued to deteriorate, she began to reflect on the relationships she had lost, whether as a result of lies or not. Maybe she really was a bad person. She was a terrible influence on everyone she met, and maybe that was why it had been so easy for the girls to help put her in prison. She knew that they had destroyed any evidence that proved her innocent in Mona's murder, and she knew that the girls more than likely hated her, but what hurt her the most was the look of disgust on Emily's face. The only benefit, in Alison's opinion, was that she wouldn't have to be faced with Emily's hatred in person from the inside of a jail cell._

 _'Maybe,' Alison had thought to herself, 'it wouldn't be that bad.'_

 _It really was a shame that by age 17, Alison couldn't even tell herself the truth._

 _Eventually, weeks had passed and Alison was released from prison, on the grounds that Mona was indeed alive. The latter, along with the girls, had been kidnapped by A and taken to an underground bunker. Despite her father wanting her to remain out of the drama, Alison did everything she could to help find the girls; she owed them that much._

 _When they were released from the bunker, Alison made a vow to herself to try and remain completely honest with the girls._

 _Unfortunately, due to Alison's conflicting family history, when Emily had frantically asked her who Charles DiLaurentis was, Alison couldn't say for sure that she knew whether or not the response she later gave to Spencer was true._ _  
_ _"There is no Charles DiLaurentis in my family." Alison told Spencer, keeping note of the disappointed, yet determined look in her eyes, "My dad says he doesn't exist."_ _  
_ _"Well your dad is a_ _liar_ _." Spencer immediately shot back._ _  
_ _'Just like you'_ _is what she didn't say, but it was understood._ _  
_ _Alison wanted to believe the words that she told her friend, that there was in fact no_ _Charles DiLaurentis_ _in her family. Wanted to believe her father when he dismissed his supposed relative nonchalantly. Wanted to dismiss her vague memories. But how could she, if she didn't even believe_ _herself_ _?_

 ** _Age 18_**

 _By the time Alison was 18, which she had turned shortly after the A drama, she had realized a few things about her family._

 _CeCe, who she had once known as her brother Charlie and cousin Freddie, was actually her older Charlotte._

 _Kenneth DiLaurentis was a malignant human being who had been the root cause of most of the horrible things that occurred in Alison's life._

 _If Kenneth hadn't been so transphobic, Charlotte never would've had to go to Radley, and Alison and Jason would've had their older sister in their lives earlier. Not only that, but Kenneth had been the mastermind behind the whole A saga all along. Somehow, he had caught wind of the fact that a) Alison was still alive, b) Mona was the original A, and c) Charles transitioned into Charlotte. Using that knowledge, Kenneth had blackmailed Charlotte to take over the A game from Mona, threatening both her life and that of Melissa Hastings. Charlotte, feeling as if she had no choice, listened to the anonymous messages that she had been getting and tormented the girls._

 _At the end of the day, the Rosewood PD had finally done its job and convicted Kenneth DiLaurentis of all of his wrongdoings, giving him a hefty prison sentence._

 _As for Charlotte, due to her extensive history at Radley, she was turned over to Welby State Psychiatric Hospital instead of a state prison. As a result, Alison decided to stay in Rosewood for college, starting by enrolling in summer classes at Hollis. The other girls, on the other hand, decided to go away for college – Spencer to Georgetown, Emily to Pepperdine, Aria to Savannah College of Art & Design, and Hanna to Fashion Institute of Technology. As they prepared to say their goodbyes, Spencer, ever the wise one, recited a quote that made them all sentimental._

 _"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard?" Spencer had said tearfully, wiping a tear out of her eyes as smile graced her features._

 _Alison couldn't agree with the sentiment more._

 _"What brilliant scholar said that?" Emily asked, her tone playfully sarcastic._

 _Spencer grinned._

 _"Winnie the Pooh."_

 _With that the girls laughed, clinging to each other with serene hugs._

 _"I love you." Emily had whispered into Alison's ear before pulling back, giving her a smile that was only reserved for her._

 _Alison gave her a genuine smile in return._

 _"I love you too."_

 _Despite the two not dating, after all they had been through, Alison was certain that she was being truthful when telling Emily that she loved her. It had taken her a long time, but Alison was finally confidant enough in herself to be completely honest._

* * *

 _Not long after the girls left her, Alison took a trip to Welby to visit Charlotte, accompanied by her older brother, Jason. The last time she had seen Charlotte had been a rather emotional ordeal, between the last of the_ ** _A_** _drama and the revelation of what a horrible shell of a person her father had truly been. Naturally, as Jason spoke with Dr. Sullivan about not believing what their father had done to Charlotte, with the good doctor insisting that that was their father's demon to worry about, Alison's thoughts raced through her mind at a million miles per hour._

 _It wasn't until she was face to face with her sister that her thoughts were able to come to a screeching halt. Seeing the bright smile on Charlotte's face relieved Alison of all the worries that had been plaguing her prior to this moment._

 _As she hugged her sister tightly, she relished in the fact that Charlotte was holding her just as firmly. With an air of reluctance, she pulled back and allowed Jason to hug Charlotte as well, before the trio sat down on the bench that Charlotte had been previously occupying._

 _"How have you been?" Alison was unsure of where else to start, her tone full of the emotions that she was still not used to expressing._

 _Charlotte reached over and grasped one of her hands, squeezing in a manner that got rid of Alison's nerves._

 _"Good." Charlotte answered quietly, "It's certainly better than Radley ever was."_

 _At the mention of Radley, the three siblings fell quiet._

 _"I was thinking." Charlotte started talking once more, "I haven't been entirely honest with you about our family."_

 _"What're you talking –" Alison began before Charlotte hushed her._

 _"I know that Melissa already told Jason about them, but I doubt he's told you about the other long-lost family members that we share."_

 _Alison turned to Jason questioningly, noting as her brother scratched the back of his neck nervously._

 _"There never was a good enough time." Jason said sheepishly, before raising a questioning eyebrow, "How do you know about what Melissa told me?"_

 _The memory of a conversation that Alison had with Charlotte as CeCe came to mind, one where she had admitted to being more than just friends with Melissa Hastings. She refrained from mentioning it._

 _"Our mother," Charlotte continued, "had a twin. Mary Drake."_

 _Alison knew she shouldn't be surprised at the revelation that there was yet_ ** _another_** _family secret that her mother kept from her, but she couldn't help but feel stunned at the news._

 _Sensing Alison's surprise, Charlotte continued, figuring it better to get everything out in the open all at once instead of prolonging it any further._

 _"Mary had two children, your age ironically." Charlotte stated bluntly, a frown marring her features as Alison's hand became slack in her grasp at her words, "One was sent to England to live a charmed life, except that it wasn't as charmed as Mary expected it would be."_

 _"And the other?" Alison hardly recognized her own voice._

 _Charlotte gave her a look, as if she were trying to decipher whether or not Alison was ready to deal with the new information._

 _"You know Peter Hastings likes to keep his family under wraps."_

 _Though Charlotte didn't explicitly say the name, Alison knew who she was referring to –_ ** _Spencer_** _._

 **Current Day – Age 23**  
By the time she was 23, Alison had her family (or what was left of it) together. Spencer, as understanding as she could be with the revelation that Alison was her cousin, and her family wasn't as she thought it was, was doing pretty well considering everything, making great strides to get to know the twin sister she had been deprived of for most of her life. Alex, just like Charlotte, was grateful for the opportunity to get to know the family that she never thought she'd get to connect with. Jason had opted to do volunteer work with the Carissimi Group and as a result, spent much of his time out of the state and even, the country. His recent trip had been to Taiwan to help build schools for impoverished areas, but he had come back in time for Charlotte's release from Welby.

In order to facilitate Charlotte's release, Alison had called each of the girls individually to plea her case. The girls, despite the trouble that Charlotte had caused them, were willing to help Alison have a wholesome family for the first time in her life. Still, Aria had been the most difficult one to persuade.

' _I'm not going to lie to the judge to help your sister live her life when I'm still having nightmares!' Aria had yelled at Alison, 'She made my life a living hell!'_

 _Alison had regarded her calmly. She had had a feeling that at least one of the girls would feel that way._

' _You know her story.' Alison had insisted._

' _I don't care if your father was a jerk.' Aria continued, pacing back and forth as she got more irritated, 'That doesn't give her the right to make others miserable. I'm done with this conversation.'_

 _As Aria had begun to walk away from her, Alison's voice stopped her._

' _You would have done the same if Ezra were in trouble.' Alison said coldly, her old mask falling into place, 'You know she only did it because Melissa's life was in danger. You of all people know what love can do to a person.'_

 _Aria frowned at Alison, realizing that she had a point._

' _I'm not asking you to lie to the judge.' Alison continued, as if she hadn't noticed that Aria had stopped speaking as she walked up to the shorter girl, 'I'm not asking you to compromise your morals. I'm asking you to consider this from the point of view of a person who would do anything to protect those that she cares about. A sister who would do anything to protect her siblings.'_

 _As Aria let out a deep sigh, Alison felt as if she had made her point._

' _I'm not going to lie to the judge.' Aria repeated as she walked towards the door and away from Alison, 'I'm going to be honest.'_

 _She paused._

' _But I'm also not going to portray her as a monster.' she finished, 'Don't expect anything more from me.'_

 _At the end of the day, that was all Alison could ask for._

Needless to say, the judge ruled in favor of Charlotte's release and the DiLaurentis siblings were finally able to live in the same household, all pretenses dropped and mentally at peace.

With Charlotte's relationship with Melissa, and Jason refusing to disclose anything about his potential love interests, that left Alison's single status to be scrutinized by her older siblings. The older DiLaurentis children never passed up an opportunity to tease Alison about the romantic tension between Alison and Emily.

"When are you and Emily going to stop ignoring this sexual tension between the two of you?" Charlotte asked Alison one morning at breakfast, causing Jason to choke on his toast, "This is getting ridiculous."

"Do you mind?" Jason asked incredulously, downing some of his tea in an effort to get his toast to go down smoother, "I'm her brother! I don't need to hear about this."

Charlotte rolled her eyes.

"Then let the ladies talk." she grinned, ignoring the horrified look on Jason's face, "I'm a reasonably concerned older sister."

Alison scowled, not entirely seriously.

"Don't you have to be somewhere shoving your tongue down Melissa's…"

"I'm going for a run." Jason announced abruptly, "This is none of my business."

As he opened the door, he was met with the slightly surprised face of none other than Emily Fields herself, her hand poised to knock. He let out a slight grimace, remembering the conversation that was taking place in the kitchen.

"Please, come in." he muttered, shaking his head to rid himself of his thoughts before leaving the house, making room for Emily to come in while shutting the door behind himself.

With that, only Emily, Charlotte, and Alison were left in the house. Alison stared at her in disbelief. She hadn't seen Emily since the trial and though they hadn't left each other on bad terms, communication between the two was still awkward.

"Emily," she started, "what're you doing…"

Alison was cut off by Emily taking long strides towards her, kissing her firmly on the mouth. All coherent thoughts left Alison's mind. She vaguely registered her sister saying "About time Americano" in the background, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

As they pulled away from each other, Emily had an apologetic look on her face.

"I'm sorry that I've been avoiding you all these years." Emily breathed, maintaining her hold on Alison, "Hanna gave me a real kick in the butt about it and I love you and…"

Alison cut her off with a kiss, pulling back with a slightly amused smile on her face.

"I love you too."

As Charlotte clapped dramatically in the background, Alison rolled her eyes, inviting Emily to join them for breakfast. Out of all the things she had said throughout her life, out of all the truths and lies, she was absolutely certain that telling Emily that she loved her was the most truthful she had ever been.

She knew from then on that if it meant that she could have Emily, the girls, and her family in her life permanently, lying would no longer be an issue for her. For their sake, she could finally be honest.


	2. Jason

Jason DiLaurentis always knew that there was something off about his family. If you'd asked him to pinpoint exactly when he realized that, he'd tell you that it was something he'd always known intrinsically. As a result, after all he'd gone through, after all he'd been through with Alison's disappearance, he couldn't tell you that he was surprised, having gone from having one full sister to having five half-sisters.

 _ **Age 2**_

 _At the ripe age of 2, if there was anything that Jason DiLaurentis enjoyed more than anything, it was playing with his big brother Charlie. Granted, at the age of 2, most of Jason's daily activities included putting anything he could into his mouth and playing with the dirt in the backyard, but even those most cherished activities took a backseat to playing with Charlie._

" _Charlie, Charlie, look!" Jason squealed excitedly, holding a handful of dirt high into the air, beaming proudly._

 _Three-year-old Charlie, clutching a doll that his mom gave him, shook his head._

" _That's dirty Jason." he frowned, scrunching up his nose in disgust, "Eww."_

 _Jason grinned, not a trace of remorse on his features. He wiggling his dirt-clad fingers in front of Charlie's face, enjoying as his older brother backed away hastily, clutching his doll to his chest._

" _Not funny Jason!" Charlie pouted, his lower lip sticking out, "Say sorry to dolly."_

 _He held the doll out for Jason to look at. A small speck of dirt had found its way onto the doll's dress. Before Jason could say anything, their father approached them._

" _Good job Jason." Kenneth DiLaurentis beamed, ruffling his younger son's hair as he snatched the doll out of his older son's hand, "Real men play in the dirt."_

 _Jason smiled widely at his father's praise, his form of appreciation shown in the way he attempted to playfully tackle his father._

 _Unbeknownst to both Jason and Kenneth, Charlie had distanced himself from the two. Had the two been paying any attention, they would've noticed the tears that had welled up in Charlie's eyes, brought on by the sorrow of having his doll taken away. Had Jason been any older, he would've seen the beginnings on a tumultuous relationship between Charlie and their father._

 _Yet, Jason was only two, and as such, didn't have the mental capacity to think such complex thoughts._

 _ **Age 6**_

 _By the age of 6, Jason couldn't really say that his life had changed that much. He still played with dirt, though he no longer put everything in his mouth. Playing with Charlie was still firmly embedded into his daily routine. It seemed, to Jason, that the only thing that had really changed was the fact that in a few months, he was going to be a big brother. His mother was pregnant, and everyone seemed to think it was the most important thing since sliced bread…everyone except for Jason._

" _I don't get it." Jason told his big brother Charlie, "What's so special about mom having another baby? It's just a baby."_

 _Charlie shook his head._

" _What's so special?" he echoed in disbelief, "What's so special? Don't you wanna be a big brother Jase?"_

 _Jason shrugged._

" _It's just a baby."_

 _Charlie put his hands on his little brother's shoulders, meeting his brother green gaze with his own gray-blue orbs._

" _When you're a big brother, you get to teach your baby siblings lots of stuff." Charlie informed him sagely, "How to use a knife and fork, how to sing your ABCs…"_

" _And how to make mud puddles?" Jason asked excitedly, intrigued by the prospect of teaching someone else about his passions._

 _Charlie scrunched up his nose before shrugging._

" _Whatever you want Jase." he murmured, "But whatever you teach them, they'll have you to look up to."_

 _Jason pondered his brother's words for a moment. It would be nice to have someone to teach about the fun things in life._

" _I guess it's not that bad." Jason said after a while, "but won't the new baby be small? Babies can't play with us."_

" _That's why they grow." Charlie insisted, "When they get bigger, we can teach them all there is to know about everything. But we have to help them along the way. Do you get it now Jason?"_

 _Charlie only ever used Jason's full name when trying to make sure he was paying attention._

" _I guess so." Jason grinned._

 _He still wasn't sure about babies being fun, but he couldn't deny that he was excited for his little sister to be born in June._

 _ **Age 7**_

 _Despite everything that the adults around him said, Jason just couldn't understand the idea that Charlie wasn't going to come back. It had been almost a year since he had seen his brother and every time he asked about him, he got varied responses._

 _His mother would get a faraway look in her eyes, shake her head, and busy herself with anything other than talking to Jason._

 _His father would get this really nasty look on his face, bend down to Jason's eye level, and declare, with a tone of finality:_

' _Charlie was your imaginary friend and he had to go away.'_

 _To Jason, it was impossible that Charlie was imaginary. After all, he used to play with him all the time, talk about the troubles of an elementary school aged kid, and look after their baby sister, Alison._

 _Speaking of Alison, by the time Jason was seven years old, his baby sister had turned a whole year old…and Charlie wasn't there to see it. The thought depressed Jason more than he thought it would. Sure, he wasn't big on the milestones of a baby, being of the mentality that babies were boring, but Charlie would've been thrilled. Charlie would've let baby Alison play with his doll and tell her the most lavish stories, even though she wouldn't understand them yet._

 _Without Charlie, there was a distinct feeling of emptiness in the DiLaurentis home, and Jason didn't like it…not one bit._

 _The sound of crying broke Jason out of his thoughts. He made his way to the source of the sound and frowned once he realized that it was his sister crying. Charlie had always been the one to help when she was crying, so Jason didn't have the hands-on experience that would've helped him out._

 _Slowly approaching the crib, Jason peered at his sister warily. She was red in the face and tears were streaming out of her eyes. Once she noticed Jason, she waved her arms upwards, as if she wanted him to lift her up._

 _Jason blinked. Alison had never really shown much of an interest in him before, but that could also be chalked up to the fact that he hadn't shown much of an interest in her either._

 _Ultimately, Jason decided that he would try his best to calm his sister down. Placing his hands under her arms, Jason gingerly lifted his sister out of the crib, holding her close to him so she was secure. Sitting down in the rocking chair near the crib, Jason cradled his sister in his arms. Throughout the whole ordeal, her loud crying softened into occasional whimpers._

" _It's okay Ali." Jason opted for using a gentle tone as he rocked in the chair like he had seen Charlie do, "I'm here. Don't cry anymore Ali. I don't want you to be sad."_

 _Whether as a result of the rocking, Jason's calm tone, or exhaustion from crying, Alison quieted, her eyes beginning to droop._

" _You're a good big brother Jason."_

 _Jason startled, but luckily had a steady grip on his sister. He looked towards the door and met the cobalt gaze of his mother, Jessica. She crossed the room and carefully took the now sleeping Alison from her brother's arms._

" _Charlie was a good big brother too." Jason said sadly, remembering his lost brother once more, "He was the best."_

 _Jessica didn't answer, not that Jason was expecting her to, and left the room._

 _He was alone once again._

 _ **Age 17**_

 _It wasn't until he was 17 that Jason started putting together the pieces of his distorted family…starting with Melissa Hastings. Of all the people who could've led to a life altering discovery, Jason never imagined that it would've been her. Looking back, Melissa wasn't exactly the most important person in Jason's life. To him, she'd always been the overachieving girl who lived across the street with her younger sister and their parents. She was only a year older than him, and seeing as they ran in similar social circles, it was inevitable that they'd bumped into one another at some point. Jason was good friends with Melissa's boyfriend, Ian, so they had definitely run into each other at social gatherings, aka – the booze-fests that Melissa let Ian drag her to because she was trying to make their relationship work._

 _Naturally, when she called him to drive her from Philly to Rosewood, he hadn't given it much thought. There had been a bit of an awkward silence between them when she'd gotten in the car, but eventually, Melissa's pride demanded that she be the one to break it._

" _I…really appreciate this." she started, only sparing a slight glance at Jason, "I would've called Ian, but…"_

 _At that, she cut herself off, but Jason understood. Though Ian and Melissa were in college, news of their breakup spread fast through the small town of Rosewood, making it no surprise that the attendants of Rosewood High were all too aware of it._

" _I get it." Jason told her good-naturedly, "You don't have to talk about it."_

 _Jason paused._

" _I know he's my friend and all, and this is probably breaking some kind of bro code," Jason said, turning to face Melissa as he stopped at a red light, "but you deserve better."_

 _For a while, Melissa said nothing, her eyes glossing over. When she was through with her musings, she smiled gently, as sight that Jason wasn't familiar with, as he'd only ever seen her scowl, look disinterested, or roll her eyes. Instead of responding, she pointed forward, indicating that the light had turned green._

" _Keep driving."_

 _With a roll of his eyes, Jason put his foot on the gas once more, driving the rest of the way in silence._

 _As Jason pulled up to the Hastings household, he felt the need to say something, if only to break the partially awkward silence that descended once it was time to part ways._

" _Thanks again Jason." Melissa murmured, once again being the one to break the silence, "I promise I won't make this a habit."_

 _Jason only nodded dumbly in response, taking note of how close her face was to his._

 _As for who leaned in first, Jason would never know, but somehow, someway, he was kissing Melissa Hastings. He couldn't say for certain that he didn't enjoy the kiss, but something about kissing her felt strange…as if he were kissing his sister. Jason wasn't dumb. He knew that she was probably just kissing him out of some sort of gratitude, or – the more likely reason – to piss off Ian, but he couldn't bring himself to pull away from her._

 _THUD_

 _The two sprang apart to the sound of loud knocking on the car window. They turned to the source of the sound, coming face-to-face with an angry, red-faced (and was that panic in his eyes?) Peter Hastings._

" _Melissa Josephine Hastings, get out of the car!" Peter roared, his impatience bringing him to try to open the car door himself._

 _With a short glance at Melissa, Jason turned off the child-safety lock, allowing Peter to open the door successfully. What neither he nor Melissa expected was for Peter to grab Melissa's arm forcefully, half-dragging her out of the car._

" _Dad, it's not that big of a…" Melissa started hastily before Peter cut her off._

" _Get in the house."_

 _Seeing as Melissa was frozen in shock, Peter continued._

" _Now!"_

 _Holding her head high and rubbing her irritated wrist, Melissa scurried into the Hastings household._

" _Mr. Hastings…" Jason started, feeling as if he should at least attempt to soften the rant that Melissa was sure to get._

 _Peter didn't allow him the chance._

" _Go home Jason." Peter ordered darkly, storming off for a bit before he froze, turning back to Jason and continuing with a deadly calm, "And don't let me see you around Melissa again."_

 _With that, Peter strode into his house, leaving Jason in his car, confused. Sure, he wasn't exactly the most upstanding of teenagers, but Jason didn't understand why Peter Hastings was so upset at the thought of him seeing Melissa._

 _It wasn't until a few weeks later that Jason got some closure on the situation, in the form of his little sister, Alison. She was having a sleepover at the Hastings house, with Melissa's little sister, Spencer, and for whatever reason, Jason was forced to go with her. He got tired of hearing Spencer's parents argue over his kiss with Melissa (with Peter giving him death glares every time they made eye contact), so he made his way to the guest bedroom._

" _Your dad caught Jason and Melissa making out in his car last month?" Alison asked, causing Jason to roll his eyes at the smugness in her tone, "That's more juicy than the guy who eats his dates."_

 _Someone, probably Spencer, sighed._

" _Melissa doesn't even like Jason." Spencer insisted, as if she was decidedly ignoring Alison's amused tone, "She's obsessed with Ian."_

" _She better be." Alison said, her tone suddenly serious, her footsteps getting closer to the door that Jason was on the other side of, listening._

 _Jason frowned. He knew that his sister was no fan of Melissa, but did everyone really have such a negative reaction to this? It was just one kiss!_

" _What do you mean Ali?" Spencer queried, her tone intrigued and if Jason were being honest with himself, he was curious too._

 _Alison abruptly opened the door, making direct eye contact with Jason. A tense moment of silence passed before a small, almost apologetic smirk appeared on her face._

" _Let's just say," she started, turning back to face Spencer, "it'd be a match frowned upon by the gods."_

 _With that, Jason strode out of eyesight of Alison, heading straight for the guest bedroom. Once there, he sat down on the bed and put his head in his hands._

 _Frowned upon by the gods?_

 _Jason was by no means into theology, but the first thing that came to mind that would be frowned upon was incest. He suddenly felt sick to his stomach. At that point, he knew. He no longer had to question it. Melissa was his sister…or rather half-sister at best? After all these years, Peter Hastings' very existence – his green eyes - solved the mystery of Jason's own green eyes._

 _If that was true, Spencer would also be his half-sister, and Alison would be demoted from full sister to half-sister. In the span of a month, Jason went from having one sister to three, but where did that leave Charlie? Despite what his fath…Kenneth had told him, Jason always maintained the belief that one day, he would find Charlie again._

 _With this newfound insight into his family ties, Jason was determined, now more than ever, to be relentless in his pursuit for answers. He couldn't help but wonder if Melissa had the same realization that he did…_

 _ **Age 18**_

 _Graduating high school, to Jason, was just about the same as attending any other year of study. At some point in time, there would be a photo taken, regardless of how enthusiastic you were about the prospect of moving on to the next grade. It just so happened that Jason wasn't the most photogenic person. As a result, when it was time for him to take his senior picture, he sat down grumpily on the chair, not even bothering to change the sour expression on his face._

" _Would it kill you to smile?" came a teasing, feminine voice._

 _With a roll of his eyes, Jason didn't even bother giving the newcomer a glance._

" _What's it to you?" he asked testily._

 _He heard the woman scoff, finally garnering his attention._

" _Rude much." she murmured._

 _Finally taking in the woman's features, Jason's displeased expression morphed into a dazed one. He barely head the click of the camera as the school photographer seized his opportunity to take the picture._

" _I'm sorry." Jason immediately apologized, taking a moment to notice the woman's gray-blue eyes, "Can I start over? I'm Jason. Jason DiLaurentis."_

 _The woman gave him a smirk before sitting on the chair that Jason had just vacated._

" _Do you even go here?" Jason asked her._

 _The woman shook her head as she tossed her hair over her shoulder, giving him a nonchalant "no" in the process._

" _You didn't give me your name." Jason continued, intrigued by this woman that he was just meeting._

 _He was sure that if she really went to Rosewood High, he would've seen her at least once in passing. Come to think of it, the only thing that came to mind was that this woman had the same eyes as his lost brother Charlie. This probably should've set off warning bells in Jason's head but for whatever reason, at the time, it didn't._

" _You're right, I didn't." the woman grinned mischievously, tossing her head upwards, "I'm CeCe. CeCe Drake."_

 _Jason nodded, a slow smile on his face. This was CeCe, not Melissa, and not Charlie. This could work out well for Jason. He could finally have a healthy relationship with someone outside of his family. Now if he could only stop making mental references to Charlie. CeCe and Charlie were two entirely different people. There was no logical reason why he should be making any comparisons. This is what he told himself as he tried to rid himself of the sinking feeling that he was about to embark on a very weird, very long, and very dramatic journey._

 _ **Age 21**_

" _I don't think we can be friends anymore." CeCe Drake said gently to a partially drunk Jason DiLaurentis._

 _His sister Alison had gone missing the day before, and the last thing he imagined he'd be dealing with was another loss…the loss of a close friend. Contrary to what the majority of Rosewood believed, he and CeCe were, in fact, not dating. They were just two very good friends that happened to look good next to one another. Jason always thought they looked and acted too much like siblings and CeCe fully agreed, allowing them to mutually agree not to date each other. The initial reason that Jason decided to be friends with CeCe was so that he could remain close to someone who reminded him so strongly of his lost brother, Charlie. The mannerisms, and eyes, if Jason was honest to himself, were just too uncanny for him to ignore. As time progressed, however, their friendship became less about Charlie and more about the bond forming between Jason and CeCe…a bond that until now, Jason didn't think was capable of severing._

 _Still, Jason couldn't honestly say that he didn't see this coming. It's not like CeCe was the typical friend. He saw her solely on her terms, and it's not like they told each other everything. There were still a lot of things that CeCe hadn't told Jason about, her family being a major example. Despite wanting to know more about CeCe, Jason knew that he wasn't exactly the ideal friend, especially for someone as well-rounded and intelligent as CeCe._

 _That didn't mean that it hurt him any less._

" _My sister is missing," Jason said, surprising himself at how calm his tone was, even as CeCe flinched, "and now you want nothing to do with me."_

 _He had meant for that to come out as a firm statement, but it sounded more like a question, even to his own ears._

" _Jason…" CeCe started before Jason held up a hand, cutting whatever she'd been meaning to say off._

" _I've never been worth a damn to my parents, and sure as hell not to Ali.?" Jason interrupted, unnerved still with how calm he was being, "So tell me, why am I not good enough for you?"_

 _At this point, CeCe looked almost near tears, the familiar look in her gray-blue eyes striking Jason at his core._

" _It's not like that Jase." she said softly, pleadingly, "You have to understand…"_

" _Understand what?" Jason shouted abruptly, "I've never been good enough for any of them, so why the hell should it be different with you?"_

 _CeCe didn't answer, the look on her face tormented._

" _I'm sorry Jason."_

 _With that, she began to walk away, leaving Jason to reflect on another time in his life when someone important to him was taken from him. Both had the potential to walk out of his life for good, irreversibly affecting Jason's relationship with anyone he came into contact with._

" _Charlie." Jason whispered, his words laced with a broken tone._

 _He didn't expect CeCe to react because in Jason's mind, Charlie and CeCe were wholly unrelated._

 _CeCe froze, surprising Jason. She turned back to him and the look in her eyes made everything click._

 _CeCe was Charlie. It was the only explanation that Jason could come up with._

" _Charlie," CeCe started, her voice trembling, "is dead."_

 _If he hadn't figured the truth out by then, CeCe's words had cemented the knowledge for Jason._

 _CeCe was Charlie, and the thought sobered him more than any good night's rest or aspirin could._

 _Before Jason could react, CeCe took off, sprinting towards her car. In a split second, Jason ran after her, making it to CeCe's car as the latter was furiously trying to buckle her seatbelt and simultaneously put the car in drive. Desperately, Jason started knocking on the car window._

" _Wait, CeCe!" Jason said hastily, "We can talk about this."_

 _He didn't want to burden her with questions. He didn't even care about the fact that he no longer had a brother and had instead gained another half-sister. He just wanted the older sibling that he had lost so many years ago back._

 _CeCe cracked the window a bit, just enough so that Jason could hear her final words._

" _Goodbye Jason."_

 _There were tears in her voice and Jason felt tears well up in his own eyes. Before he could respond, CeCe drove off, leaving Jason to ponder how he hadn't put the pieces of his family history together earlier._

 _ **Age 24**_

" _CeCe, its me." Jason began, stepping into the light of the arcade that CeCe had wanted to meet him at, "I came alone, just like you asked."_

 _Logic told him that he should turn her in once he saw her, for all the torment that she'd caused Alison and her friends. Yet, there was a large part of him that knew that he wouldn't. It had been over a year since he last saw his oldest sister, and he'd be damned if he was letting this opportunity slip through his fingers. When he saw her, they would go from there. No authorities would be involved if Jason could help it._

 _Granted, if this didn't go well, and Jason got caught there, he'd obviously lie about his intentions and insist that he was always going to turn her in._

 _Her_

 _That was another thing. Despite knowing that Charlie was CeCe now, that his adoring older brother was now his witty and charming older sister, Jason didn't reveal that secret to anyone. He was almost certain that Melissa would've figured it out by now, seeing as he knew how ironically close his older sisters had been before this whole A drama started. Regardless, when Spencer had asked him about Charlie, he told her that same lie that his father had fed to him for years, that Charlie was just his imaginary friend. When Alison had asked their (really her) dad about Charlie, Jason kept quiet about the truth. But could he really be blamed?_

 _His whole life, he had always been second-best to someone or something. Was it really wrong for him to want the company of someone who had always treasured him, treated him as family really should?_

 _A flicker of a shadow caught Jason's eye, bringing his attention to a hooded figure that was slowly coming towards him._

" _Charlie." Jason breathed, the old nickname coming out of his mouth before he could stop himself, "Sorry. CeCe."_

 _The figure didn't even flinch, moving to pull off its hood._

" _Freeze! Nobody move! Rosewood PD"_

 _Both CeCe and Jason looked towards where the voices were coming from, immediately spotting Toby Cavanaugh and Lorenzo Calderon of the Rosewood PD, guns raised towards CeCe._

" _No." Jason whispered to himself as CeCe began to run away, "Wait!"_

 _As the officers began firing, CeCe fired back, using one of the arcade's machines to fire ammo back at the officers, somehow managing to break Lorenzo's arm. As all of Jason's hopes came crashing down around him, he made brief eye contact with Spencer and that was when he knew._

 _She had bugged his car._

 _Without waiting for any further chaos to ensue, Jason stormed off. Later, when he was at home with Alison, he relayed to her how all he had wanted was a single moment with their mutual older sibling. Alison had the decency to look sympathetic._

" _Jason, Ali, come play with me!"_

 _Jason and Alison looked at each other before rushing to the source of the sound, taking note of the projector that showcased a family outing from over a decade ago. Attached to it was a note that Alison picked up, holding it sideways so that Jason could see it._

 _I wAnted to trust you_

 _It wasn't signed, but Jason already knew who it was from, and the knowledge destroyed him._

* * *

 _It wasn't until a few months later that Jason realized that he had yet another long-lost sister. That information came to him in the form of the one woman he'd never had a close relationship with – Melissa Hastings._

 _Considering how intelligent the oldest Hastings daughter was, he shouldn't have been as surprised as he was to see her lounging casually at his kitchen table, flipping leisurely through a novel._

" _What are you_ _ **doing**_ _here?" Jason hissed to her._

 _His father,_ _ **adoptive**_ _father that is, Kenneth DiLaurentis did as he did best, disappeared without letting Jason know where he was going, and Alison was trying to get back into the good graces of her friends._

 _Melissa, unperturbed by Jason's harsh tone, closed her novel slowly, looking up at him with an indescribable emotion in her eyes. He could just barely make out the name of the novel's author – Dostoyevsky._

" _Is that any way to treat one of your five sisters?"_

 _Jason couldn't read her tone, and instead settled for sitting down across from her at the table._

" _What're you talking about?"_

 _Melissa's impassive countenance didn't change, and she pushed a small picture across the table to him. On it appeared to be a picture of Spencer, smiling at whoever the photographer was. She had on bolder makeup than Jason was used to, but there was no doubt in his mind that this was, in fact, a picture of Spencer Hastings._

" _You're showing me a picture of Spencer, why?"_

 _Melissa's lips twisted, and Jason couldn't tell if she was trying to smile, or grimace._

" _Our father," Melissa's tone was purposeful, "has more skeletons in his closet than he likes to admit."_

 _Melissa hesitated before a sigh left her lips._

" _And Alex Drake is one of them."_

 _Melissa pushed a medium sized folder across the table, stiffening slightly as Jason caught her hand._

" _What is this, Melissa?" Jason questioned._

 _Melissa eased her hand out of his grip and leaned back into her chair, her formerly hesitant look replaced with her usual haughty one._

" _Mary Drake's Radley file." She murmured, her tone low._

 _Jason couldn't reason why she was being so transparent with him, and told her so. Melissa abruptly stood up and made to leave the kitchen, leaving Jason with a mind full of questions._

 _He didn't know who Mary_ _ **or**_ _Alex Drake was, and as he opened the file Melissa had given him, he was taken aback as he realized that Melissa_ _ **was**_ _telling him the truth about the Radley file._

 _The patient name on the file was Mary Drake. Date of birth told Jason that this woman was his mother's twin, and though it didn't specify_ _ **why**_ _Mary was in Radley in the first place, it_ _ **did**_ _mention her giving birth to two children._

 _ **Spencer and Alex Drake**_ _._

 _The file went on to detail how Spencer was adopted by Peter and Veronica Hastings, the order signed off by Eric Kahn's father. As for Alex, it didn't mention much other than the fact that she was sold by Mary to a wealthy English family in exchange for money and a ticket out of Radley, and that she was Spencer's twin._

 _As the rush of new information took over Jason's thoughts, he placed his head in his hands. How did his_ _ **entire**_ _life end up being one big, fat lie? How did he go from thinking he was a part of one family to having an entirely different heritage?_

 _He didn't even give himself time to question where Melissa had gotten the file from in the first place._

 **Current Day – Age 29**

As Jason pulled into the DiLaurentis family driveway, he couldn't help but feel a sense of relief. He'd been out of the country during CeCe's (now known by Charlotte) release hearing, but managed to catch a red-eye flight to Rosewood. He hadn't told Alison or Charlotte because he'd wanted to surprise them. He opened the door to the house and was immediately engulfed with a hug from his sister.

"Hey big sis." Jason grinned, already knowing it was Charlotte.

Charlotte pulled back, returning Jason's grin with one of her own.

"Hey baby bro." she teased, ignoring the rolling of Jason's eyes as she pulled him into the house, "Ali's in the shower and Melissa's here."

The brunette in question waved at Jason, a small smile forming on her lips as she got up and hugged Jason.

"Welcome home baby brother."

Jason, for the second time in all of five minutes, rolled his eyes.

"Hello Melissa." Jason greeted, "Not that I'm not happy you're here but…why are you here?"

There was a brief silence, long enough for Jason to realize that Charlotte and Melissa were holding hands.

"No way." Jason breathed in shock.

"I'll put it in terms that you can understand." Melissa stated calmly, wrapping an arm around Charlotte's waist, "Between the obvious sexual tension between Alison and Emily, my relationship with Charlotte, and Alex's obvious crush on Aria, the only brother you're getting in the foreseeable future is Toby, and that's if he gets back with my sister. That is, unless your hateful father somehow finds another woman to put up with him."

As Charlotte laughed at Melissa's blunt statements, Jason couldn't find it in himself to be surprised.

"I don't need any brothers." Jason said confidently, wrapping an arm around the shoulders of his two older sisters, "I have all the family I need."

"Well isn't that touching." came the playfully sarcastic tone of Alison, "Jason spends a couple of years doing humanitarian work and now he's a big softie."

As his sisters laughed at his expense, Jason only rolled his eyes.

"Alex would have my back." Jason declared dramatically, crossing his arms over his chest, "She's the only _loyal_ sister I have."

Alison snorted.

"What about Spencer?" she quipped.

"Not since she started making googly eyes with the carpenter again." Melissa interjected, her tone mockingly disdainful, "I never liked him anyways."

"Perhaps, you're a Team Sparia fan?" Charlotte murmured playfully, drawing an eyeroll out of Melissa.

"Not a bloody chance in hell." The sound of a British accent alerted the quartet to the arrival of Alex Drake, "Everyone knows that pixie and _I_ are endgame."

At this, the now group of five descended into easy laughter, none of them taking each other's verbal jabs too seriously. Seeing how much his family had grown, Jason took a moment to himself, smiling widely.

So what if one of his half-sisters was dating his other half-sister? They weren't related. And so what if Alison was romantically interested in Emily, and Toby was his only chance to have a brother? Jason didn't care.

Sure, he had lost Charlie, but he wouldn't trade Charlotte and his other sisters for any societal norm.


	3. Charlotte

Charlotte (formerly Charles) DiLaurentis had always known that she was different. For the majority of her childhood, adolescence, and even adulthood, she felt horrible about the fact that she couldn't be, as her father would say, _normal_. After all, when a person hears something enough times, they begin to believe it. Charlotte was no different. Despite this, she wouldn't change anything about her past. Her struggles, all the hate she had received from people who were supposed to be her support systems, had helped to craft her into the resilient person she was today.

 _ **Age 3**_

 _By the age of three, Charles "Charlie" DiLaurentis could safely say that he did not like playing with boys' toys, or playing a boy's game. He couldn't tell you exactly why, but he preferred playing with girls' toys. As a result, when his mother, Jessica, took him to the toy store, instead of gravitating towards the monster truck that his younger brother, Jason, did, he wanted the newest Barbie doll._

 _As such, it was the doll that Charlie played with while his brother Jason played in the dirt in the backyard._

" _Charlie, Charlie, look!" Jason had exclaimed proudly, showcasing a handful of dirt to Charlie._

 _Charlie, who had a tight grip on his doll, shook his head vigorously._

" _That's dirty Jason." he admonished, scrunching up his nose in disgust, "Eww."_

 _Instead of showing the remorse that Charlie was hoping for, Jason grinned, wiggling his fingers in front of Charlie's face, enjoying as Charlie abruptly moved backwards, holding his doll protectively to his chest._

" _Not funny Jason!" Charlie pouted, his lower lip sticking out as the beginnings of tears entered his eyes, "Say sorry to dolly."_

 _He held the doll out for Jason observe. The doll's dress now had a miniscule speck of dirt on it, which, to Charlie, was absolutely unacceptable. Dolls, and consequently people, in Charlie's opinion were supposed to be pretty and clean, always immaculate._

 _Jason was never given the chance to respond, as their father chose that moment to approach them._

" _Good job Jason." Kenneth DiLaurentis praised, running his hand through Jason's hair fondly before snatching the doll out of Charlie's hand, "Real men play in the dirt."_

 _With that, Charlie backed away slowly from his father and brother, not even bothering to watch as the two roughhoused with each other. The tears that had begun to form when dirt got onto the doll's dress were now streaming down Charlie's face. He didn't understand why his father didn't think that real men, or boys for that matter, couldn't play with dolls. Granted, Charlie had no interest in being a "real man," seeing as it seemed gross to him. He'd much rather be pretty and elegant, just like his mother._

 _Unbeknownst to Charlie, that though would be the beginning of a series of events that he never could've seen coming, just because he dared to be different from his father's expectations._

 _ **Age 6**_

 _By the time he was six, Charlie officially realized that he was fairly different from young boys his age. For one thing, he wanted to be just like his mother instead of like his father. He wanted to be able to wear the long, flowy dresses that he had seen his mother adorn, and show off the dazzling golden earrings that she wore too. Other boys around his age, like Jason for instance, wanted to emulate their fathers: the suits they wore, jeans, polos, just proving their macho attitudes in general._

 _Needless to say, his father was not very happy about this._

 _As a result, his father told his mother that in order to get rid of Charlie's "intolerable feminine side," she ought to carry him somewhere that was gender neutral, like a museum._

" _We have to start slow, Jess." Kenneth had told Jessica, unaware of the fact that Charlie could hear everything, "If we have any chance of getting him to act normal, he can't feel like we're forcing this."_

 _What Kenneth didn't know was that Charlie had already tried to be normal. He tried to enjoy the games that Jason enjoyed. He had already tried looking up the phrase 'how to be normal' on the Internet when his parents weren't in the room. Nothing had worked and as a result, Charlie understood one simple fact: he wasn't normal._

 _Now as for whether or not Charlie minded that fact, he wasn't really sure. His dad seemed to hate it and out of familial loyalty, Charlie felt as if he should've hated it too, and yet, he didn't._

 _Maybe he'd ask Jason about it after the museum trip._

 _His mother was kind enough to let him choose the museum and as a result, Charlie found himself at the Bucks County Children's Museum bright and early one Saturday morning, with his mother and brother in tow. Not liking the idea of getting up early, Jason stayed close to his mother, rubbing his eyes to try and get the sleep out of them._

 _Charlie, on the other hand, was eager to explore. Keeping his father's opinion of him in mind, Charlie attempted to go to the exhibits that he thought girls wouldn't be caught dead in, like the "The Big Dig." Based on the books he read, Charlie was of the opinion that girls didn't like dirt, and would consequently stay away from the exhibit. He hoped that his mother would see him and relay the news to his father – that he was making an effort to be normal._

" _Are you finished using that trowel?"_

 _Charlie spun around to make eye contact with a pretty brown haired, brown eyed girl about his age. She didn't seem perturbed by the fact that the exhibit involved sifting through dirt, so Charlie mentally gave her props for that. He gave her a small smile._

" _Sure." Charlie told her, handing the tool over to her and seizing his chance to make his first friend, "I'm Charlie."_

" _Thanks." Melissa replied, examining the tool in her hands before smiling back at Charlie, "I'm Melissa. Melissa Hastings."_

 _There was a brief moment of silence before Melissa broke it._

" _How about we work together?" she asked, wringing her hands as she nervously awaited Charlie's answer, "We'll answer the questions a lot faster that way."_

 _Charlie beamed at her and nodded._

" _Let's do it!"_

 _For the next 15 minutes, Charlie and Melissa spent their time unearthing the history of Pennsylvania through archaeological detective work. In that time, Charlie forgot all about his aversion to dirt and delved right in, eager to make a good impression on his new friend. Melissa seemed to appreciate it, as she kept grinning at him._

" _Say, Charlie." Melissa said once they were finished with the exhibit, "What do you want to be when you get older?"_

" _I want to be like my mommy." Charlie said eagerly, "She wears the prettiest dresses and her hair is so long. I wish my hair were that long."_

 _Charlie sighed, remembering why he had taken the trip to the museum in the first place._

" _But I can't be like her."_

" _Why not?" Melissa asked, a frown appearing on her features at the thought that something was troubling her recently acquired friend._

 _Charlie hesitated, not wanting to cause his new friend to dislike him, just like his father did._

" _My father said that boys are supposed to be like their fathers." Charlie said quietly, averting his gaze from Melissa so as to avoid the look of disgust he was certain he would get, "Boys aren't supposed to like dresses, or dolls, or anything girly."_

 _Charlie paused._

" _Boys aren't supposed to want to be girls." he finished, his tone just above a whisper._

 _He still didn't risk looking at Melissa's face, which was why he was surprised when he was pulled into a tight hug by the brunette. When she pulled away, she placed one hand on Charlie's shoulder and the other under his chin, forcing him to look at her. The compassion in her brown eyes surprised Charlie._

" _Listen to me Charlie." she said firmly, her tone unwavering, "Be whoever you want to be. Don't let anyone choose the way you live your life."_

 _Had anyone else been listening to Melissa speak, they would've been shocked at the level of severity in her tone, as if she was speaking through the lens of a person who had to learn the harsh lessons of life, not someone who was merely six years old._

 _Nonetheless, it was just Charlie who was listening, and he couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the brunette._

" _Thanks Mel." Charlie smiled widely at Melissa, feeling a renewed sense of hope for the prospect of meeting someone who didn't want to change him._

 _As Melissa opened her mouth to respond, the clicking sound of heels echoed throughout the museum as Jessica approached the two._

" _There you are Charlie." Jessica breathed a sigh of relief, maintaining her grip on Jason's hand as the younger boy stared at his brother in childlike fascination, "We have to leave."_

 _Before Charlie could react, another woman's voice reached his ears._

" _Melissa, we're leaving now."_

 _The two six year olds turned to face a tall woman, with Melissa's wavy brown hair and dark eyes. As the woman approached them, her eyes locked on Jessica._

" _Jessica." the woman, Melissa's mother it would seem, began cordially, "I wasn't expecting to see you here."_

 _At that, Jessica's jaw clenched slightly and an emotion (was that guilt?) flashed in her cerulean eyes._

" _Veronica." Jessica replied, once she had found her voice, "How…nice to see you again."_

 _Melissa and Charlie looked between each other and their mothers, unsure of what to make of the situation. It appeared that their mothers knew each other, but for whatever reason, there was tension between the two._

 _An awkward silence began between all parties until an impatient Jason tugged on his mother's dress, declaring that he was ready to go home. Jessica smiled tersely and ran her hand through her younger son's hair._

" _It would appear that we have to cut this short." Jessica said, a slightly more genuine smile on her face at the prospect of leaving, "Charlie, tell your friend goodbye."_

 _Charlie frowned, not ready to leave his first true friend. From the conflicted look in her eyes, it seemed that Melissa felt the same way._

" _It was nice meeting you Melissa." Charlie said politely, giving Melissa a brave little smile as he hugged her once more, "I hope we meet again."_

" _Me too Charlie." Melissa murmured gently in his ears before pulling back._

 _With a single wave, Charlie followed his mother and brother out of the museum, turning back once to see dark eyes staring back at him._

 _As Charlie sat next to his brother on the car ride home, he thought of what Melissa had told him:_

' _Don't let anyone choose the way you live your life.'_

 _Maybe he didn't have to try so hard to be the normal little boy his father wanted him to be. Maybe, just maybe, he could get away with being himself._

 _ **Age 8**_

 _As an eight-year-old, Charlie knew, with utmost certainty, that being himself would never be good enough for his father. He had started to suspect that it hadn't been good enough for his mother either. If he could pinpoint the moment when he understood this fact, it would be the time when he tried to give his baby sister, Alison, a bath. She had been crying and their parents were out of earshot. His father had been somewhere in the house and though Charlie tried knocking on the window, his mother was unable to hear him from outside, where she had been simultaneously looking after Jason and speaking with a neighbor. Thus, Charlie took matters into his own hands and attempted to give Alison a bath, as baths normally helped Charlie calm down when he was upset._

 _Bad idea._

 _Charlie didn't know that babies didn't have the same capabilities as young children when it came to bath time. He didn't expect that she would sink. He assumed that she would be able to sit up on her own, just as he could._

 _He was wrong._

 _Before Charlie could even try to rectify his error, his father, Kenneth, shoved him roughly out of the way, pulling Alison out of the tub and cradling the crying baby to his chest._

" _What's wrong with you?" Kenneth had yelled, a look of disdain in his gaze as he stared down his oldest son._

 _Charlie shrunk back into the curtains as his father yelled. This wouldn't be the first time that Kenneth asked him a question like that._

" _Dad, I didn't know she couldn't…" Charlie shakily started before Kenneth brashly interrupted him._

" _First you pretend to be a girl, telling me foolishness about being a girl instead of a boy." Kenneth continued, his face getting redder as he continued to yell, "and now you try to kill your sister? Are you jealous because she'll be what you never will?"_

 _Tears started streaming down Charlie's face. His father's words hurt him deeply, but he still valiantly tried to get his point across._

" _I was just trying to…" he pleaded desperately before Kenneth cut him off again, this time with his tone even more malicious._

" _I wish you were never born." Kenneth said darkly, glaring at Charlie, ripping the latter's hope for understanding and acceptance to shreds, "You've been nothing but a cancer to this family."_

 _By this point, Charlie's silent tears became full force sobs as he collapsed onto his knees, the emotional turmoil just too much for him to take. He didn't understand why his father couldn't love him, couldn't accept him like all the parents in his bedtime stories did._

 _After this incident, much of Charlie's eighth year was a blur to him. Somehow, he went from living in the DiLaurentis house to becoming a full-time resident of Radley Sanitarium. He went from having a family to having mental patients stare creepily at him all day long. On the days when Charlie felt nothing but despair, he'd think of what his mother told him the day he arrived at Radley._

" _I love you Charlie," she had told him gently, "and I always will."_

 _Or if that didn't work, he'd think of what his friend Melissa, who he had met so long ago at that museum in Buck's County, told him when he started doubting himself._

' _Don't let anyone choose the way you live your life.'_

 _The thought that there were people in the world loved and supported him was almost enough to bring up Charlie's spirits._

 _Almost_

 _Every time he started to feel slightly better about himself, he remembered his father's words to him that fateful day:_

' _I wish you were never born. You've been nothing but a cancer to this family.'_

 _The thought of being such a burden to his family broke Charlie's heart, reducing him to such gut-wrenching sobs that the orderlies tended to stay away from him, leaving him feel even more alone than he did before._

 _Maybe, he thought, it would be better if he had never been born._

 _ **Age 13**_

 _Charlie was 13 years old when he first started his transition into a girl. By that time, he had firmly decided that he wasn't going to spend the rest of his life in what he felt was the wrong body. His mother, much to Charlie's relief, was supportive throughout the whole process. She was the only person in the world, aside from his only friend Melissa Hastings, who was alright with him being who he really was. She took him to various appointments with several specialists and therapists, taking every precaution necessary to make sure that a) this was what Charlie wanted and b) that this transition would be as smooth as possible. To Charlie, it seemed unnecessary for his mother to ask him every time if he was sure that he would be happy with his choice. For as long as he could remember, Charlie had never felt like a boy, and he wanted the opportunity to be content with his physical state of being._

 _Once given the thumbs up by the doctors, Jessica allowed Charlie to begin hormone therapy. She warned him that the hormones may not take effect as swiftly as he wanted them to, in addition to the fact that he would have to wait until at least age 18 before having the gender reassignment surgery. She didn't want her son to get his hopes up in order to be disappointed. She underestimated Charlie's enthusiasm. Sure, he was thrilled at the prospect of finally getting to be who he was on the inside, and sure, he wanted this whole process over with as soon as possible, but he was willing to wait as long as it took._

 _After all, he had survived 13 years in the wrong body. To him, five more years was a small price to pay, considering all the hardships he'd already faced._

 _When he asked his mother if his father knew about this, she froze, her eyes alight with both sadness and guilt. Her silence told Charlie everything he needed to know._

 _Regardless, not even the fact that he was being kept a dirty secret could diminish his happiness. His newfound vigor was so out of character for the normally withdrawn boy that a fellow Radley resident known as 'Big Rhonda' confronted him about it._

" _Why're you so happy?" she grumbled._

 _If there was anything that Charlie had learned about Rhonda in the time that he knew her, it was that she had two moods – grumpy and irate. He was just glad that she was currently the former._

" _My mom said that I can finally begin my transition process." Charlie beamed proudly._

 _With things finally going his way, Charlie didn't feel the need to keep the news to himself._

" _You want to be a girl?" Rhonda frowned, tilting her head in confusion._

" _I don't want to be a girl." Charlie reiterated, "I am one. I was just born in the wrong body."_

 _If possible, that made Rhonda even more confused._

" _What's so special about being a girl?"_

 _As Charlie opened his mouth to defend his position, another Radley resident, Bethany Young, entered the room._

" _Let him live." she told Rhonda sagely, winking at Charlie as she sat down on one of the lounge's chairs, "It's not your life."_

 _Charlie had seen Bethany around before and knew she that was a few years his junior, probably by two or three years. Nevertheless, he had never spent any time in her vicinity until that moment._

 _Still, it was nice that she accepted him._

 _It was that thought that brought Charlie to smile at Bethany. Maybe not everyone hated him like his father did. Maybe there actually were people in the world who were okay with him being his authentic self aside from his mother and Melissa Hastings._

 _ **Age 15**_

 _Naturally, not everyone would be supportive of Charlie's transition, or existence in general. This was evident in the fact that by the age of 15, Charlie started conversion therapy. It was ironic that the only time his father had ever visited him at Radley was to instruct the orderlies to enroll him in conversion therapy, a relatively new program that had started around 10 years prior._

" _I don't want you to carry out the physical side of this." His father had told one orderly, making sure that Charlie could hear, "It's more the mentality that I'm focused on. He's very stubborn, and I want him to see the error of his ways before this goes too far."_

 _Charlie wasn't naïve. He knew exactly what conversion therapy was and what its aims were. Regardless of his own self-loathing, Charlie was determined not to let the therapy get to him._

 _If only it were as simple as that._

 _In remembering his fifteenth year, Charlie vividly remembered one such conversion therapy session, not because the message was unique, but rather because that was when the orderlies started drugging him for his disobedience._

" _Repeat after me." an orderly, whose name Charlie hadn't bothered to remember, stated, "I am a boy. I will become a man. My feminine tendencies are disgusting."_

 _Clenching his jaw, Charlie resolved not to say anything. The words weren't anything he hadn't already heard._

 _The orderly, sensing that his job wouldn't be easy, sighed._

" _Look kid." he started, "Whether or not you choose to make this easy or difficult, your dad is still paying me extra for this."_

 _At the mention of his father, Charlie's eyes welled up with tears, but he refused to let them fall. He was already aware of how his father felt about him._

" _What was it that he said?" the orderly smirked, pretending to think to himself before snapping his fingers, "Oh yeah. Once a monster, always a monster."_

 _At Charlie's silence, the orderly continued, seizing a handful of his shirt and shaking him lightly._

" _Now repeat after me!" the orderly growled, his voice taking on a menacing tone as he seemingly lost the battle to keep his calm, "You're testing my patience kid, and you're not the only freak I have to deal with today."_

 _Something in Charlie snapped at the adjective used to describe him, prompting him to actively try to struggle out of the orderly's grip._

" _I'm not a freak!" Charlie yelled, banging his fists against the orderly's chest, "I'm not, I'm not, I'm not!"_

 _The orderly chuckled darkly, pulling Charlie even closer to him, so close that Charlie could smell the stench of cigarettes on his breath._

" _No one will ever love you."_

 _Not wanting to face the potential truth in the orderly's words, Charlie leveled a sharp (and rather lucky, considering his position) kick at the orderly's shin, watching as the orderly swore and let him go, clutching his shin._

 _Before Charlie could bask in proper satisfaction at his small victory, he felt a sharp prick in his arm, causing him to feel slightly drowsy over time. He tried, in vain, to hold onto the wall to keep him steady but his vision was blurring fast, causing him to fall to the floor._

 _His last thought was of the orderly's words:_

' _Once a monster, always a monster.'_

 _ **Age 18**_

 _At the promising age of 18, Charlotte DiLaurentis was born, wishing a heartfelt goodbye to the young boy she was forced to be for the first part of her life. The journey hadn't been easy, but she was finally the woman she always knew she was._

 _Charles DiLaurentis had been given a proper burial in Aunt Carol's backyard, a couple of flowers being tossed neatly on the headstone. Only Charlotte, Jessica, and Aunt Carol had been present for the occasion._

 _Also at age 18, Charlotte was given special permission from the board at Radley (through Jessica's influence) to take classes at the prestigious Ivy League College – the University of Pennsylvania. For years, Charlotte had dreamed of one day being able to go to an actual school with actual people and learn actual subject material. Self-teaching at Radley had become boring. After all, she had read every single book, manual, and pamphlet that Radley had to offer, not to mention the books that her mother would gift to her every visit. The only condition was that she would have to live with her Aunt Carol in Philadelphia, as her house was close to the university and Radley wouldn't let her dorm._

 _Despite being limited in her college experience, as Charlotte waited on a long line to speak with a counselor about setting up her freshman schedule, she couldn't find it in her to complain. After setting up he schedule, deciding to take the maximum amount of credits permitted for one semester, Charlotte made her way to the library, determined to get a head start on the readings for her classes. On the way, she bumped into someone, causing both of their papers to fall gracelessly to the ground._

" _I'm so sorry." Charlotte apologized immediately, crouching to the floor to gather the papers into her hands, "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."_

 _In the midst of trying to separate the individual papers, Charlotte's hand met the stranger's, causing her to make eye contact with the person she had collided with._

 _She was met with familiar dark brown eyes._

" _Melissa." Charlotte breathed, her tone one of amazement and shock._

 _Melissa stared at her for a moment, her eyes narrowed in concentration before they widened in recognition. A small gasp left her lips._

" _Charlie?"_

 _Charlotte tried, and was mostly successful, in holding back a wince. She wasn't prepared for the potential verbal onslaught that came with admitting who she was. She knew all too well how harsh people could be and though Melissa once encouraged her to be herself, she knew that time changed people._

 _She was terrified at the thought that it changed the kind-hearted brunette she met a long time ago._

" _I go by Charlotte now." Charlotte said weakly, cursing herself for not sounding more confident._

 _There was a moment of silence between the two, each second passing increasing Charlotte's fear of rejection._

" _I have to go now." Charlotte said hastily, attempting to move away from Melissa and out of the situation._

 _A hand grabbed her wrist._

" _Don't go." Melissa pleaded, an unknown emotion shining in her dark eyes, "You've grown to be very beautiful."_

 _Charlotte blushed slightly at the compliment from someone she considered her childhood crush. After realizing what she had said and how forward it sounded, color flooded Melissa's cheeks in return._

" _What I meant was," she rectified, "I'm glad to see you living your truth."_

 _With this, Charlotte gave her a small smile. She still wasn't entirely sure that the brunette truly accepted her, but she couldn't be blamed. If her own family locked her up for not conforming to societal norms, why would anyone else treat her any better?_

" _I was heading to the library but I think I was going the wrong way." Melissa admitted, "Would you happen to know where it is?"_

 _Charlotte nodded, too stunned to speak at the idea of someone treating her as if she were normal, as if she were actually a human being worth having a conversation with._

" _I was heading there myself." Charlotte replied once she had gathered her bearings, determined not to let her lack of much human interaction deter her from connecting with an old friend, "We can go together if you'd like."_

 _Melissa didn't even hesitate before a large smile took over her features. At seeing the reaction, Charlotte's heart pounded wildly in her chest._

" _I'd love to."_

 _With that, the two reacquainted friends made their way to the library, each sneaking glances at the other when they assumed they weren't looking. They walked in silence, but it was a comfortable once, one that didn't require any words to maintain the ease between them_

 _It was at age 18 that Charlotte began to feel that maybe she didn't have to pretend to be someone else around others. At least, with Melissa Hastings, she could be herself._

 _ **Age 19**_

 _By age 19, Charlotte learned two lessons that would stick with her for a long time:_

 _Those closest to you can turn on you when it comes to saving their own hides._

 _Even the moments you plan carefully could still take unexpected turns._

 _With regards to the first lesson, Charlotte had the displeasure of learning it due to her friendship with fellow Radley_ _inmate_ _resident (she really had to stop thinking of Radley as a prison; it wasn't good for her sanity) Bethany Young. Bethany had, as the majority at Radley did, known about Charlotte's transition and at first glance, had appeared to be perfectly fine with it. One would even call her supportive._

 _Charlotte should've known better than to trust others._

 _One night at Radley, when Charlotte was visiting for a mandatory check-in, she and Bethany decided to go up on the roof, despite knowing that patients weren't allowed access to the roof for obvious reasons. Charlotte had expressed her desires to be permanently free of Radley and Bethany had given her a cryptic response._

" _Leaving's easy Charlotte." she had said, "It's staying gone that would tough."_

 _Charlotte couldn't agree more. Despite being able to leave to take classes at UPenn and only have to be at Radley for routine check-ups during her college years, Charlotte couldn't help but want more freedom. For the better part of her life, she had been unjustly locked up in a mental institution because her father couldn't accept the fact that she deviated from the path he wanted for her._

 _Nonetheless, Charlotte didn't spend much time dwelling on the past that night. Bethany had disclosed that she had been diagnosed with Intermittent Explosive Disorder, which is why she was stuck at Radley, because her father didn't want the pressure of raising a mentally ill daughter. Between the two of them, and Big Rhonda on occasion, they were the outcasts of Radley._

 _It was due to this simple fact that when Marion Cavanaugh stepped onto the roof that evening, Charlotte immediately hid, not wanting to face yet another adult who may have something negative to say about her life. Bethany, on the other hand, decided to stay and talk to Marion, standing dangerously close to the ledge._

 _Charlotte had never taken Bethany for a very rash person, which is why she was simultaneously shocked and horrified when Bethany abruptly pushed Marion off the side of the building, a cavalier look on her face. She immediately rushed to the ledge, looking down and feeling sick to her stomach when she saw the body of Marion Cavanaugh on the ground, bloodied and bent at unnatural angles._

" _Bethany." she had said, disbelief riddled in her tone, "What did you do?"_

 _Immediately, the serene look on Bethany's face gave way to a horrified look that mirrored Charlotte's._

" _Me?" Bethany gasped, clutching a hand to her chest as she backed away from Charlotte, "You pushed her…freak!"_

 _Charlotte froze, her blood running cold as Bethany hurried off of the roof. Maybe if she had recovered from the insult fast enough, she would've been able to tell an orderly her side of the story before Bethany got to them. Long story short, in the end, it wouldn't have mattered much. After all, she had overheard what a lawyer had told her mother when she considered pressing charges against Bethany:_

" _Whether or not your daughter's guilty," the lawyer began, "no one's going to believe a girl who was once a boy."_

 _Needless to say, Jessica had paid off the Radley board to let the murder be ruled a suicide. As for Bethany, she stayed far away from Charlotte in the future, under the guise that she was "scared" that she was next. As for Charlotte, she learned to be distrustful of people, being careful to only disclose necessary information to others._

 _That leads to the second lesson that Charlotte invariably learned by age 19: very rarely in life will things actually go according to plan. She learned this lesson when she made an attempt to visit her brother Jason, who was still attending Rosewood High. She knew when the high school had their picture day and wanted to make a guest appearance. Perhaps if she had told Melissa about her plan, the brunette would've dissuaded her from doing something so reckless, but Melissa hadn't been there that day._

 _As a result, in order to get of classes that day, Charlotte had called in a bomb threat at her college. She was good with technology and wasn't careless enough to use her own phone, so there was no way that the call would've been traced back to her._

 _After asking for directions to where the pictures were being taken, Charlotte had confidently stridden in the direction. She had a simple plan for how she wanted the day to go: a) meet Jason, b) chat with him for a while, c) let him know they were related (Jason deserved that much at least), and d) take it from there. Though she had been harshly rejected by many others in the course of her life, she had a feeling that Jason would be different. After all, if he had adored his older brother when he was younger, what was stopping him from adoring his older sister?_

 _When Charlotte finally reached her destination, she froze in shock at seeing her baby brother all grown up. He had decided to wear his hair almost shoulder length, and he had transformed from a scrawny little boy to a lean and slightly muscular man. Shaking her head, she cleared her throat to gather her thoughts._

" _Would it kill you to smile?" she teased, noticing that Jason was wearing the trademark frown he donned every time he was forced to do something he had no interest in._

 _Jason scoffed and Charlotte rolled her eyes at the attitude. He always was so dramatic._

" _What's it to you?"_

 _A partially indignant and partially amused sound left Charlotte's lips._

" _Rude much?"_

 _With that, Jason finally made eye contact, probably to tell her off, before his eyes widened. A stunned look crossed his face and a flash of emotion left his eyes as quickly as it had appeared. For a moment, Charlotte was almost certain that he had recognized her, but his next words dismissed all her hopes._

" _I'm sorry." Jason apologized, not even seeming to realize that the photographer had taken his picture, "Can we start over? I'm Jason. Jason DiLaurentis."_

 _Charlotte resisted the urge to tell him that she already knew who he was. Instead, she took a seat on the chair that Jason had vacated. After all, if she had traveled all the way from UPenn to Rosewood High, she may as well get her picture taken._

" _Do you even go here?" Jason asked her._

 _Charlotte gave him a vague "no." Surprisingly enough, the photographer didn't even bat an eyelash. He probably didn't get paid enough to care who decided to take a picture._

" _You didn't tell me your name." Jason continued._

" _You're right, I didn't." Charlotte grinned, "I'm…"_

 _Charlotte hesitated, not long enough for Jason to notice, but long enough for her nerves to take over. She knew then that she couldn't muster the courage to tell her brother who she was."_

" _CeCe." Charlotte decided on, "CeCe Drake."_

 _As for why Charlotte decided on that name instead of the truth, she would never know. Drake was her mother's maiden name and CeCe was a nickname given to her by Melissa, who eventually shortened it to just Ce._

 _As Jason continued to stare at her in amazement, she could only wish that her brother didn't develop a crush on her. That would definitely make everything a lot more complicated to explain. Melissa had already told her about the kiss she had shared with Jason in an effort to annoy Ian, which had made Charlotte jealous to no end. Regardless, she realized that she had to focus on Jason. She didn't think it was fair for him to harbor feelings for her when she was his sister. She knew that Jason was also Melissa's brother, and the poor man shouldn't have to suffer through being romantic with two of his sisters when he had already kissed one. That was just cruel._

 _Despite how warm and kind Jason had seemed, CeCe couldn't bring herself to tell him the truth just yet, despite that being the whole reason she came to Rosewood High in the first place._

 _It was depressing to think that in spite of all she'd been through, nothing could ever go as planned._

 _ **Age 22:**_

 _Charlotte was 22 years old when her life turned upside down for the second time._

 _By this time, she had been kicked out of UPenn as a result of a petty Noel Kahn pushing a girl down the stairs at a frat party for refusing to go out with him. The childish 15-year-old was the younger brother of the notorious Eric Kahn, a popular frat boy that Melissa and her ex-boyfriend Ian had gone to high school with. The frat party in question was one that Charlotte had brought her younger sister, Alison, to. The witnesses of the incident had been hung up about the fact that they had seen a blonde woman near the top of the stairs at the time. Despite having any proof whatsoever, they had blamed Charlotte and she was consequently kicked out of UPenn. Alison had apologized profusely, feeling immensely guilty about the fact that she couldn't help in any way. Charlotte had brushed off her apologies, reassuring her that she wasn't upset. Sure, it had been frustrating to be kicked out so close to graduation but if she was honest with herself, UPenn had started to get a bit boring anyways. She already knew all of the material they had taught her from her self-teaching days at Radley. Her mother hadn't been pleased and Melissa had been infuriated about the injustice, but Charlotte wasn't as upset as she probably should have been._

 _In reminiscence, she had met Alison as CeCe Drake a few months after she had become friends with Jason. Thankfully, it was mutually agreed that Charlotte and Jason would be completely platonic with one another, as their relationship was more like one of siblings than of lovers. Despite this, Alison still maintained that Charlotte should date Jason._

 _Alison -_

" _I don't understand why you won't give my brother a chance Ce." Alison had begun the conversation with._

 _Charlotte was quick to insist that she and Jason were merely platonic. She didn't want her baby sister under the impression that she and Jason were in a relationship. That would only complicate things once Alison learned the truth about her familial ties. Yet, Alison was quick to defend her assumption that there was a spark between Charlotte and Jason, citing verbal evidence she had received from Melissa Hastings._

" _Melissa even confirmed it." she said, "She told me about you and Jason. Said that…it's not funny CeCe!"_

 _Charlotte couldn't help it; she began to laugh. She and Melissa had been dating in secret since their earlier college years and she knew that Melissa had a tendency to exaggerate when trying to emphasize a point. She already knew the truth between Charlotte's familial ties and they had joked, on several occasions, about the idea of Charlotte and Jason becoming Rosewood's version of Cersei and Jaime Lannister had they ever went down the romantic road. Amused by Alison's proof, Charlotte decided to try and rectify the situation._

 _"I'm sorry," Charlotte said as she made an attempt to justify her laughter, "but you mean to tell me you're getting your info from Melissa Hastings? I didn't know you guys were friends."_  
 _At the sound of Charlotte's incredulity, Alison's cheeks colored. She seemed to realize how silly she sounded, considering the fact that Alison and Melissa weren't even close to friends. Realizing Alison's discomfort and confusion, Charlotte put an arm around her shoulder._

" _Don't even worry about it Ali." she tried to comfort her, "Melissa's just jealous."_

 _She almost snorted to herself at the thought of Melissa's reaction to being called jealous._

 _If possible, Alison looked even more confused, asking her what she had to be jealous of, or how they even knew each other. Charlotte rolled her eyes and pulled off a smirk that made most of Rosewood believe that she and Alison were related._

' _If only they knew.' she thought to herself._

 _Out loud, she simply said,_ _"Just leave it at…I know her." CeCe said simply, "I know her really, really well. Just as well as I know you."_  
 _As Alison spoke about how she and Charlotte wouldn't have much reason to see each other without Jason in the picture, Charlotte's heart sank. She had never imagined that her family would be so divided. So as the conversation later drifted from what CeCe stood for to Alison's blatant crush on Emily, from Charlotte's brief mention of her father to Alison living her truth, Charlotte could only hope that her sister had an easier life with their father. It was this sentiment that she conveyed to her girlfriend Melissa when they met up later that day._

 _Melissa -_

" _I just wish we could be a proper family, you know?" Charlotte had ranted, leaning into Melissa's warm embrace as they sat together on a couch in Melissa's Philadelphia apartment, "I couldn't even tell her the truth. What kind of hypocrite advises someone on living their own truth when they can't come clean about their past?"_

 _Melissa held onto her tighter, rubbing soothing circles on her girlfriend's back as she listened to her. She knew that at that moment, her girlfriend needed to get some things off of her chest._

" _How am I supposed to be her friend when I'm keeping such huge secrets from her?" Charlotte continued, burying her face in Melissa's shoulder, "Not to mention that Jason doesn't even know yet."_

 _Charlotte shuddered._

" _God, I've been in his life for more than two years and I'm too coward to…"_

 _Not being able to bear hearing any more of Charlotte's self-deprecating, Melissa kissed her deeply, trying to convey her love and acceptance in the embrace. Charlotte didn't hesitate in kissing her back, shifting herself so that she was straddling Melissa's waist on the couch. As they pulled away from one another, Melissa kept her hands interlocked behind Charlotte's back, keeping her steady._

" _Listen to me." she said firmly, her tone unwavering as she raised one hand to wipe away a stray tear from Charlotte's face that the latter didn't even realize was there, "You are the bravest, most resilient person I have ever met. You continue to win your battles every day and I am so proud of you for that."_

 _Melissa paused to kiss Charlotte lightly._

" _I love you Charlotte." she declared, her tone laced with conviction, "That will never change. I will always support you."_

 _Charlotte let a small smile tug her lips upwards._

" _You always know how to make everything better Mel." she grinned, nuzzling into Melissa's neck._

 _She felt Melissa laugh in return._

" _I'm glad you're feeling better." Melissa smiled, a playful glint in her dark brown eyes as Charlotte pulled back to look into her eyes, "Now tell me again what possessed you to paint me as a jealous girlfriend to Alison."_

 _Charlotte let out a laugh as she delved into the tale, knowing that as long as she had Melissa Hastings, she would never need to be anyone but herself._

 _Jessica -_

 _Unfortunately for Charlotte, life, no matter how good it was at one point, didn't generally go her way. One fateful night when she was back at Radley, she caught wind of Bethany Young's plan to hurt her mother. Charlotte knew that her mother had been having an affair with Bethany's father, but she was unsure of the extent of the affair. Nonetheless, she knew that when Bethany snuck out of Radley that night, she had to follow her._

 _When she arrived at the DiLaurentis house, donned in a black hoodie, she caught sight of a blonde facing away from her, standing on the lawn and staring into the DiLaurentis house, donning the yellow shirt that Bethany had stolen from Charlotte earlier that day. Picking up a rock from the ground, Charlotte kept a firm grip on it as she moved stealthily towards the blonde she assumed was Bethany. She saw Jessica in the window, the older woman staring intently at both Charlotte and the other blonde. Not hesitating for a moment longer, Charlotte raised the rock and struck the blonde over the head, watching in satisfaction as she went down. She made eye contact with her mother and was startled to see that the older woman looked horrified, her hands covering her mouth and her body trembling. It was then that Charlotte got the sinking feeling that something was eerily wrong. She took a chance and looked down at the blonde she struck, gasping in horror as she spotted a familiar face._

 _It wasn't Bethany she had struck._

 _It was Ali._

 _She back away a few steps and eventually, when her legs couldn't support her anymore, sat down by a nearby tree. As her mother stormed onto the yard, Charlotte couldn't find it in her to look at her. When she heard the sound of dirt being moved, Charlotte looked up to see her mother digging a hole…a hole to put Alison' body in._

" _What have you done?" Jessica asked harshly through clenched teeth, her voice laced with pain, "What have you done?"_

" _I'm sorry mom." Charlotte whimpered, her voice trembling as tears ran down her face uncontrollably, "I didn't know it was Ali mom, I swear!"_

 _With that, she placed her face in her hands and sobbed, rocking back and forth, murmuring to herself incoherently._

 _After a while, she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see her mom staring at her. In the light of the night, her hair appeared black, and though that should've seemed strange to Charlotte (as her mother's hair was dirty blonde at best), she attributed it to the darkness of the night._

" _You need to get out of here." her mother murmured, her voice huskier than normal as she pushed stray hairs out of Charlotte's face._

 _She didn't say anymore, and Charlotte scrambled to her feet, hugging her mother close to her before running off. She knew, before her mind caught up with the rest of the body, that she was heading off to see Melissa Hastings._

 _Melissa –_

 _When Charlotte arrived in the Hastings backyard, she didn't expect to see Melissa pacing about, running her hands through her hair every few seconds. Something had rattled the brunette and despite her own current problems, Charlotte wanted to know what had troubled the brunette._

" _Melissa."_

 _At the sound of Charlotte's voice, Melissa startled, her dark eyes wide and frightened in the moonlight as Charlotte approached her. At seeing who it was, Melissa calmed down slightly, her hand firmly on her chest in an effort to calm herself down._

" _Do I have to call 911 to get your attention?" the brunette hissed, raising her own phone to show the 20 calls that the brunette had put through to the blonde._

 _Charlotte winced, cursing herself for leaving her phone at Radley that night._

" _I don't have my phone on me." Charlotte said, her voice slightly over a whisper, "Why're you out so late?"_

 _Before Melissa could answer, the voice of Jason DiLaurentis cut through the night._

" _Ali!"_

 _With that, Melissa pulled Charlotte behind some bushes, biting her lip in anticipation as Jason passed out in a drunken stupor._

" _I think…" Melissa started before pausing, taking a deep breath to calm herself before continuing, "I think Spencer killed your sister."_

 _Inappropriately, Charlotte laughed bitterly to herself, causing Melissa to scowl at her. Shaking her head, Charlotte rectified her response._

" _Spencer didn't kill Alison." she insisted, the beginnings of tears welling up in her eyes as she remembered the earlier events of the night, "I did."_

 _Charlotte roughly wiped the tears out of her eyes as she remembered what she had come to the Hastings house to do in the first place._

" _I came to say goodbye Melissa." she said grimly, a dull ache in her chest, both at the thought of having killed her own sister and the thought of leaving her first and only love, "I can't stay here."_

 _Melissa blinked in confusion before shaking her head in disbelief._

" _Then who the hell did I just bury?"_

 _Charlotte stared at Melissa in shock. She couldn't have buried Bethany…could she have?_

" _I don't have time to explain everything." Charlotte settled on, pressing a quick and passionate kiss to Melissa's lips before pulling away, "Just remember that I have always loved you Melissa Hastings. That'll never change."_

 _Before she could talk herself out of it, Charlotte took off running, ignoring Melissa's frantic whisper-shouts for her to come back. Charlotte knew that if she didn't leave then, it would be even harder for her to leave afterwards. She wouldn't risk dragging Melissa into her mess. She loved her too much to do that._

 _Jason –_

 _Charlotte knew that she couldn't just disappear off of the grid without at least saying goodbye to Jason. Her younger brother deserved that much. As such, in the early hours of the next morning, before the majority of Rosewood would even be awake, Charlotte sent a text to Jason to meet up with her. When her brother arrived, she knew, without a doubt, that he was getting over a hangover. It made her heart pang to see her younger brother so addicted to drugs and alcohol but despite her efforts, she was unsuccessful in getting him to quit._

 _Ultimately, it would have to be his decision._

" _What was so urgent that you have to text me at…" Jason checked his watch, squinting to make out the time, "four in the…"_

" _I don't think we can be friends anymore." Charlotte blurted out, cutting off her brother's sentence._

 _There was a brief, awkward pause between the two of them after that. In that time, Charlotte saw a myriad of emotions running through her brother's eyes:_

 _Pain_

 _Anger_

 _Rejection_

" _My sister is missing," Jason had said, his tone calm and even, causing Charlotte to flinch, "and now you want nothing to do with me."_

 _Charlotte felt the beginnings of a headache forming, prompted by how messed up this whole situation was. She didn't want her brother to hate her. Her father already did, her mother probably did, her sister was dead, and couldn't bear the thought of the last member of her family hating her too._

 _She started to speak, trying to rectify the situation, but Jason cut her off._

" _I've never been worth a damn to my parents, and sure as hell not to Ali." Jason interrupted_ _in a yell, his voice no longer calm_ _, "So tell me, why am I not good enough for you?"_

 _Charlotte felt tears building up in her eyes, not only because of the evident pain her brother was in (despite his calm tone), but also because of the reminder of how she had never been good enough for her father. The pain was raw but she tried to force it down, choosing to say nothing that would further hurt her brother._

 _Instead, she simply said, "I'm sorry Jason."_

 _With that, she began to walk away from him, half hoping that he would let her go, and half hoping her would call her back._

 _What she wasn't expecting was for Jason to make reference to a person who had died long ago:_

" _Charlie."_

 _The name was whispered, hardly loud enough for Charlotte to hear, but she froze nevertheless. She turned around and met Jason's gaze, her tone not much louder than his own._

" _Charlie," she began, her voice shaky as she struggled to contain her almost overwhelming emotions, "is dead."_

 _Not bothering to wait for Jason's reaction, she took off running towards her car, hurriedly opening the door so she could put her seatbelt on and put the car in drive. Within seconds, she heard pounding on her door, coupled with Jason's pleas, the latter insisting that they could talk about this._

 _With a heavy heart, Charlotte rolled down her window, murmuring her last word to her brother in a teary voice:_

" _Goodbye Jason."_

 _Without waiting for her brother to grapple with her words, Charlotte drove off, leaving her brother alone as tears streamed down her own face, making it almost impossible for her to drive properly._

 _Radley –_

 _Charlotte figured that she should've known that her mother wouldn't forgive her easily for Alison's death; that when she had told her to get away from the DiLaurentis house, she only meant temporarily._

 _After leaving Jason alone, Charlotte had made her way to Aunt Carol's house, intending to use the house as a sanctuary to gather her thoughts before ultimately leaving Rosewood behind. Consequently, she was surprised to see her mother there, with a stern look on her face, insisting that Charlotte be taken back to Radley._

 _In the light of the day, Jessica's hair no longer looked black, and was instead its normal dirty blonde. In years to come, Charlotte would look back on the difference in hair color and question her own intelligence, question why it didn't cause more concern than it previously did. Yet, at the age of 22, Charlotte was unaware of all of the DiLaurentis family's dark secrets._

 _She hadn't initially wanted to go back to Radley, but her mother's argument had convinced her: she was a murderer, and Radley was the best she could get without going to prison. Had Charlotte been thinking rationally, she would've realized the irony in that statement but at the time, still distraught over the death of her sister, Charlotte agreed._

 _After all, as the orderlies used to tell her:_

' _Once a monster, always a monster.'_

 _ **Age 23**_

 _Charlotte could honestly say that by the age of 23, she was so over letting people live her life for her. It had been a year since Alison's death and she had been stuck at Radley ever since, at her mother's suggestion. Her mother had thought it would be good for Charlotte's sanity if she weren't left to her own devices after such a tragic event but at age 23, Charlotte had already begun to stop viewing her mother through a rose-tinted lens. She knew that if her mother had truly loved and accepted her, she wouldn't have insisted that Charlotte go back to the place that was responsible for the majority of Charlotte's self-esteem issues._

 _Charlotte was just disappointed that it took her so long to realize what a volatile influence her mother had on her life._

 _Nevertheless, Charlotte was determined to start living life for herself. Maybe Radley wouldn't be bad this time around. After all, the orderlies hardly bothered her anymore, unable to draw a connection between the boy she once was and the woman she became. As a result, the harsh treatment of her childhood had been mostly eradicated. She was now more aware of how Radley worked, so she knew how to get on the good side of the orderlies. She knew which ones she had to butter up with compliments, and which ones she had to treat with disdain._

 _All in all, if Radley had taught Charlotte anything, it was how to become a people person._

 _Still, at her age, she couldn't help but wish, still, that she knew more about what was going on in what she liked to call "outside of the bubble," also known as outside of Radley. She longed to know how her little brother had turned out, if Melissa Hastings remembered her, or even how Aunt Carol was faring. Aunt Carol had stopped visiting around the same time Alison…went to a better place, and Charlotte could only hope that Aunt Carol hadn't been turned against her too._

 _Hell, Charlotte even wanted to know how her father was doing. The man had been such a malignant influence on all aspects of her life, so it was natural that Charlotte wanted to know how the man lived with himself, considering how cruel he had been to his children._

 _It had taken a while, but Charlotte had come to terms with Alison's death. Rationally, she knew that it was just all one misunderstanding, but the larger, more self-deprecating, part of Charlotte told her that a person like her couldn't have nice things. Thus, Alison had paid the ultimate price for Charlotte's existence with her very life._

 _In thinking about all the things that Charlotte wanted to know about outside of Radley, she came to think about Alison's group of friends, who Jason often referred to as the "Powerpuff Girls."_

' _They're so cliquey it's scary.' Jason had told her during their vacation at Cape May, 'They may as well call themselves the Powerpuff Girls. It's like they think they're fighting crime by being in such a tight knit group.'_

 _Anyways, Alison's group of friends had been together since pre-school, and Charlotte found that despite being so close to Alison, she had never met the group that she consistently surrounded herself with. It was a shame, really, that the two parties so close to Alison had never become acquainted, that they barely even knew of the other's existence._

 _Little did Charlotte know that that would soon change._

 _Charlotte was 23 years old when she met Mona Vanderwaal, commonly referred to, by Alison, as "Loser Mona." Mona entered Radley that year for reasons unknown to Charlotte at the time and immediately noticed the blonde's likeness to Alison, immediately calling her Alison upon arrival._

 _Of course, Charlotte was flattered. Considering the fact that she spent the majority of her life wanting to be recognized as a woman, she was proud of the fact that an outside party who had never met her thought of her resemblance to the DiLaurentises in terms of Alison, as opposed to Jason. She couldn't truly be surprised that Mona mistook her for Alison. Aside from the obvious familial resemblance, it was evident that the orderlies at Radley had Mona hooked on some type of drug, one that was reducing her faculties and making her prone to error._

 _It wasn't until Mona really started talking to Charlotte, however, that the blonde's interest was gauged._

" _Alison." Mona had said one day, playing with the hem of her patient's gown as Charlotte observed her carefully, "Those bitches are glad that you're gone."_

 _At that, Charlotte paused._

" _What're you talking about Mona?"_

" _Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily." Mona clarified, a frown on her face as she squinted at Charlotte, "They're glad you're gone. They don't even miss you."_

 _Charlotte would be lying if she said that the thought of Alison's own friends not mourning her death didn't anger her greatly. It was probably the older sister protectiveness that caused her rage. Yet, that was nothing to merit getting revenge on these girls. Charlotte was a reasonable person. She knew that Alison was no saint, and that some people would be relieved that she was gone. Of course, to Charlotte, that didn't make it proper to be outright_ _ **happy**_ _that she was dead. What kind of friends were those?_

 _Nevertheless, Charlotte didn't think much of it until she got a text from an anonymous number. While at Radley, she had managed to charm her way into getting special privileges, like keeping her cell phone and having internet access. Even with those privileges, it was still highly unlikely that anyone would text Charlotte. There were only four people who would actually bother texting her, and due to obvious circumstances, she knew she wouldn't be hearing from any of them:_

 _Melissa: Charlotte had blocked the brunette girl's number, not wanting to see any messages that she would send to her. If she did, it was highly likely that she would be tempted to respond, and she didn't think that Melissa deserved to be dragged into her family drama._

 _Alison: It was obvious why Alison wouldn't be messaging her anymore._

 _Jason: After Charlotte had left her younger brother the morning after Alison's death, the young man relentlessly texted her, trying to get a better explanation as to why their friendship couldn't continue. After a while, however, Jason gave up on her…just like everyone else in her life._

 _Jessica: Surely, after her precious daughter had been killed by her eldest child, she wouldn't want to keep in contact with the latter._

 _Despite not knowing who the anonymous texter was, Charlotte read the message:_

 _ **Mona played with dolls, and now you will play with body parts. Do everything I say, or Melissa will be erased from Rosewood.**_

 _ **-A**_

 _Attached to the text was a picture of Melissa that appeared to be taken while the brunette was unaware. Regardless of not speaking to the brunette, Charlotte knew that she had to keep Melissa safe. It was the least she could do after the brunette had shown her some form of love over the years._

 _ **Age 24**_

 _Following this "A" person was more troubling than just about anything Charlotte had faced throughout her 24 years of life. Despite her intelligence, she wasn't anywhere closer to figuring out who this malignant influence was, or how they were able to know so much about her life…or that of Alison's friends, for that matter._

 _In obeying A's commands, Charlotte was forced to do things she wasn't proud of. She had to send hurtful texts to Alison's friends, potentially ruining what little peace they had since Alison's disappearance. The last thing those girls needed was someone to follow in Mona's footsteps with this whole sick game._

 _Somehow, A discovered that Alison was actually alive and well, having miraculously survived the devastating blow to the head that Charlotte had given her, under the assumption that she was Bethany. Of course, this knowledge wasn't enough for A: whoever A was, it would appear that they wanted Alison back in Rosewood immediately. The urgency of A's texts to Charlotte wasn't lost on her, but she couldn't help but remember one text in particular that A had sent her._

 _ **Your precious Ali has been a very naughty girl. Bring her back to Rosewood for Christmas or Santa will be forced to ground her…permanently.**_

 _ **-A**_

 _The language of that text in particular reminded Charlotte of how her father used to reprimand her for her girlish tendencies when she was a lot younger, possibly around five years old._

' _You've been a very bad boy Charles,' Kenneth would tell her, out of earshot of her mother, 'and just in time for Christmas. Boys wearing dresses is wrong and you should never do it. You don't want Santa to have to ground you on Christmas, do you?'_

 _Charlotte hadn't thought anything of her father's words at the time, other than that they were fairly hurtful, but considering her latest text from A, she couldn't help but pause. Kenneth had always been a cruel person, but he wouldn't stoop so low as to be responsible for the heinous crimes that had occurred in Rosewood since Alison's disappearance…would he? Kenneth was a lot of things, but Charlotte had never pegged her father to be criminally intelligent._

 _With a crack of her knuckles, Charlotte sat down in front of her laptop. If Kenneth wanted to play games with her, so be it. He wasn't the only one who could fight fire with fire. With that, she composed an email and sent it to Kenneth's private email. It hadn't been all that hard to hack into his work computer from a distance and if Charlotte was honest with herself, Kenneth could've done a lot better in terms of a security barrier. The email only consisted of a few words, words that Charlotte had spent her whole life wanting to say to her father:_

 _ **You don't own me.**_

 _ **-C.D.**_

 _As fate would have it, Kenneth wasn't the type of person who easily relinquished control once he had gained the upper hand. He turned her in to police custody once finding out her role in Wilden's murder. Charlotte had found out that the rogue cop had been harassing Melissa's sister and her friends and out of loyalty to Melissa, Charlotte felt as if she had to do something about it. Thus, it didn't surprise her when police caught up to her one night when she was staying in a motel, having received a tip from someone who identified themselves by the letter_ _ **A**_ _. What did surprise her, however, was the fact that when she was loaded into the police car, the officer, Barry Maples, had stopped the car in the middle of nowhere, turned to her, and said the following:_

' _Hit me hard, and take the car.'_

 _Without thinking about it, Charlotte did as she was told. She did feel bad momentarily. After all, Officer Barry was one of the few cops in Rosewood who hadn't harassed the girls, and was pretty well-liked throughout Rosewood. To assuage her conscience, Charlotte reasoned with herself that if Officer Barry were really that clean of a cop, he wouldn't have let her go so easily. He had no reason to like her, or even know her, and yet he was willing to risk his job for her._

 _Trying to ignore her overly analytical mind, Charlotte made her way to the DiLaurentis house. She was planning on leaving Rosewood behind for good, and figured that she'd at least say goodbye to her mother. The older woman hadn't been the best of parents, but she was still the lesser of two evils when compared to her father._

 _When she got to the house, she found herself unnerved by the silence of the night. As far as she could see, the lights inside the house and on the porch were still on, so she reasoned that her mother was home. As she got closer to the house, she noticed a figure sprawled out on the ground, causing her blood to run cold. The closer she got to the figure, the more the chills ran down her back until she was finally in front of the unmoving figure._

 _It was her mother._

 _Without even touching her, Charlotte knew that she was dead. That didn't stop her from collapsing onto the ground in front of her mother, clutching the fabric of her mother's jacket as she sobbed into the stiff shoulder._

" _You can't leave me here." Charlotte cried brokenly, shaking her mother in vain to try and get her to physically respond, "You can't leave me here! I just saw you a few hours ago."_

 _It was true. A few hours prior, Charlotte had seen her mother at the police station talking to an officer. The only sign of recognition her mother gave her was a haughty look as she was escorted in handcuffs…and now she was dead._

 _A vibration in her pocket alerted Charlotte to an incoming text message. Without looking, she already knew who it was from. With a heavy sigh, Charlotte looked at the text message._

 _ **I gave you an order. I wanted obedience, not sass. Make sure Alison is in Rosewood by Christmas or another loved one will end up like your mother.**_

 _ **-A**_

 _After reading the text, Charlotte got the distinct feeling that she was being watched. She looked up just enough to see the silhouette of a figure moving swiftly away. She knew it was her father. It just had to be._

 _She didn't want to risk anyone else getting hurt, or even possibly killed, and as a result, she vowed to comply with the rest of his demands._

* * *

 _Of course, if she was going to get her head fully in the "A game," she needed to get her mind in order._

 _What better way to do that then to take a vacation? Or, in Charlotte's case, flee the country after being accused of murdering a police officer. It was true that after Alison had given her the means to leave the country, she had every intention of going to France. The romantic destination was a place she had always wanted to take Melissa, so if she couldn't have the brunette, the country was the next best thing._

 _She had made it past airport security with her Vivian Darkbloom wig and large sunglasses on, but just after she had shown the airport worker her passport, she received a call from Wren Kingston. The young British doctor was one of the only members of the Radley staff who had been kind to her during her tenure at Radley, and, as such, she didn't have qualms about letting him have her number._

 _Worst case scenario, she could just change her number in France._

" _I know this is gonna sound strange." Wren's tone was hurried as soon as Charlotte answered the phone, "But there's someone you_ _ **have**_ _to meet."_

 _Charlotte scoffed._

" _Wren, I already told you, I'm not looking for a relation –"_

" _It's not about romance, Charlotte." Wren hissed impatiently, "You're not the only member of your family that your father has kept hidden."_

* * *

" _Is she here?" Charlotte asked quietly into her phone. She was on the phone with Wren shortly after landing in England. After the British man had explained the circumstances of her mother's twin, and their children, Charlotte took a red-eye flight from France to England, but not before getting a unique scented perfume for Alison, "You told me to look for someone familiar?"_

 _Charlotte had been waiting for all of five minutes before she became impatient. The only other person she had spoken to that day with an English man named Archer Dunhill, but despite the man's obvious interest in her, her heart was only preoccupied with Melissa._

" _Trust me." Wren murmured, "It was practically a culture shock for me the first time I met her."_

 _Charlotte squinted her eyes in concentration before a gasp left her lips, the surprise almost causing her to drop her phone._

" _Twin." Was the only word she breathed to Wren, as she stared at a slightly edgier looking version of Spencer Hastings, only Spencer Hastings, this was not. Rather, she was looking at a 17-year-old Alex Drake._

" _Charlotte?" the twin called, and the British accent further set the woman apart from Spencer._

" _I'll call you later, Wren." Charlotte didn't give the man a chance to respond as she hung up abruptly, walking swiftly over to the table that her newfound cousin was sitting at._

 _Her cousin stood up, sticking her hand out awkwardly for a handshake before Charlotte pulled her in for a hug._

" _I wasn't sure if you'd actually agree to meet me." Alex murmured nervously, tugging slightly at her collar as she pulled back from her older cousin, "It's just…my family has never wanted me before, and I just thought –"_

" _Believe me, I get it." Charlotte said quickly, and she totally understood. Between spending over half her life in a mental institution and paying the price for her family's negligence, she knew what it felt like to be unwanted, "You don't have to explain that to me."_

 _The relieved smile Alex gave her in return was infectious._

* * *

" _So that's Melissa?" Charlotte was sitting on a bed in one of the spare rooms in Alex's flat, with the younger girl looking through the pictures on Charlotte's phone. The picture in question was one of Charlotte and Melissa from their junior year of college, with the latter giving Charlotte a piggy back ride as Charlotte attempted to take a decent picture with her phone._

" _Yes."_

 _Alex noted the abrupt tone in Charlotte's voice and looked up at her older cousin, observing how she stoutly refused to look at the picture._

" _You two look…happy." Alex's tone was cautious, not wanting to upset the only family she'd ever known._

 _The responding sigh Charlotte let out made Alex really feel for Charlotte. She, herself, had never known what it was like to experience heartbreak, but that was the only word that Alex could think of to describe the situation._

 _After a few minutes, Charlotte sat up abruptly, grabbing the phone out of Alex's hand faster than the latter could even blink._

" _Is something wro –" Alex barely got out before Charlotte cut her off._

" _I have to go back to Rosewood." Charlotte interjected, looking desperately through her phone – for what? Alex couldn't have known – "There are some loose ends that I have to handle."_

 _ **Age 25**_

 _It would appear to Charlotte that her father, the notorious mastermind_ _ **A**_ _, hated his family. By the age of 25, that was the only rationale that Charlotte could come up with in regards to the whole grand prom scheme. If locking the girls up in a dollhouse for several weeks, financed by funds that Charlotte had acquired through smart investments, wasn't enough, Kenneth had decided that he wanted Charlotte, Alison, and the other girls dead. She hadn't quite figured out all of his reasoning, but she knew that there had to be some reason for why he was filled with such hatred._

 _To begin prom night, Kenneth had sent her a text to meet him at the DiLaurentis house. It would be the first time that Charlotte had been face to face with her father since he abandoned her at Radley all those years ago, but things were different now. Instead of being excited at the prospect of seeing her father again, as she would've been as a young child, she felt nothing but dread fill her. The last thing she ever wanted to do again was see her father, but at this stage in her life, if she wanted to keep those she held close safe, she knew that this was something she had to do._

 _As she approached the backyard, she caught sight of Kenneth, unmasked, with his hands clasped calmly in front of him. Next to him, on the ground, was the prone figure of her younger brother, Jason. With a gasp, Charlotte ran up to him, shaking him and calling out to him desperately. The only response she got from the young man was a blank stare from wide open, green eyes._

" _He's not dead." Kenneth said drily, his tone almost bored sounding as he narrowed his eyes at Charlotte, "Yet."_

 _Charlotte looked up at her father slowly, drawing strength from the eerie feeling in her gut that told her this all of this would end…_ _ **tonight**_ _._

" _What do you want from me?" she asked him, her voice shaky, but determined._

 _At that, Kenneth gave her a wicked grin, cracking his knuckles as he bent down to her level._

" _I wanted you to be normal," he murmured, cupping her chin in his rough palm as he leaned closer to her, "but that was too much for me to ask. I wanted a son, but I got a freak instead. Now, the only child I had left, the only child I had hopes for has allowed herself to be corrupted by Emily Fields in all her…homosexuality."_

 _In disgust at her father's intolerance, Charlotte wrenched herself away from his grasp. She made to stand up before her father grabbed her wrist, forcing her to stay in the kneeling position._

" _Now, now Charles." her father sneered, a scowl replacing his grin, "There are a few things I want you to do for me."_

 _After taking another glance at her prone brother on the ground, Charlotte met her father's steely gray gaze with one of her own._

 _He wouldn't get away with what he had done._

 _Charlotte hadn't actually_ _ **wanted**_ _to separate Alison from the girls during their prom. She knew that Kenneth had sent a text to Alison in an attempt to lure her to the prom, and being the loyal friends they were, Alison's friends followed her._

 _She just wished that this horrendous affair would end._

 _In hindsight, drugging Alison and bringing her to Radley wasn't high on the list of getting the younger blonde to trust her but after revealing herself to her, she didn't have many options left. She knew that Kenneth would be trying his hardest that night to bring harm to her, Alison, and her friends, and she needed a safe place to explain things to her._

 _It was really too bad that as with most things, Kenneth was always a step ahead of her._

 _By the time she had managed to get Alison to Radley, the sight in front of her old room stopped her dead in her tracks. If she didn't have such a tight grip on Alison, she would've dropped her unconscious body for sure._

 _The door in front of Charlotte's old room at Radley had been replaced with bars, and prone, on the ground, were the frozen bodies of both Jason and Kenneth. As if fate couldn't get any crueler, her phone pinged, notifying her of an incoming text message._

 _Taking a deep breath, Charlotte placed Alison down on the cot inside her old room before reading the message she had just received._

 _ **Did you really think you'd win? Time's ticking, and so's a bomb. You have 45 minutes to say your peace before you get blown to pieces. You will always be a monster.**_

 _Instead of being signed "A," Kenneth had signed it with a ridiculing "daddy." It was evident that he had dragged Jason to Radley before drugging himself, making sure to set a timer on his phone to send her a delayed text message._

 _The thought that there was a bomb somewhere within Radley disturbed Charlotte deeply. As much as she had suffered in her life up until this point, she wasn't ready to give up her life. There was so much she hadn't experienced yet. She never got to binge on ice cream after a crappy day. She never got to give Jason advice on girls, or give Alison sisterly advice, with the younger girl knowing the truth about her parentage._

 _She never got to have a family with Melissa Hastings._

 _What she couldn't understand was why Kenneth was willing to put his own life on the line just to make sure that she wouldn't have a happy ending. Assuming that the bomb threat was real, it would most certainly kill him too. What could possibly plague Kenneth so much that he was willing to end his own life? Simple hatred for her seemed unlikely, as he could've ended it all years ago, so why now?_

 _Taking a deep breath, Charlotte pushed all of that behind her, stepping into her old room. All she had to do was wait for Alison to wake up before she bared her life story to her. It was the least she deserved…before she died._

 _Charlotte should've known that it would be Melissa's sister Spencer who would deactivate the bomb. Those Hastings girls were always smarter than most, and it wasn't surprising that Spencer would have some algorithm in her head for preventing explosions._

 _She hadn't exactly been trying to kill herself when she went on the rooftop that night. Sure, she swayed dangerously forward on the ledge, but she had heard the girls storm up the stairs after her._

 _All in all, she just wanted to see if they would stop her._

 _She knew that they had no reason to like her, or even care about her life, but she couldn't help but want to know if the girls would still stop her from leaping off the literal edge._

 _After announcing "game over," though it was never truly her game to being with, Charlotte was taken into police custody for the second time in her life. She had overheard the guards talking about her as she was placed into an interrogation room. She knew that they assumed her to be mentally unstable, too mental to send to prison. The most that they would do to her is send her to another state asylum._

 _As Detective Holbrook entered the room, Charlotte couldn't help but smile. The last time she had seen Holbrook, she had all but sent him on a wild goose chase trying to decipher her words about knowing who killed Bethany Young._

" _Ms. Drake..." Holbrook started before Charlotte cut him off._

" _DiLaurentis actually." Charlotte grinned sarcastically, leaning forward in her seat until the handcuffs were pressing hard into her wrists, "I'm the family secret."_

 _Holbrook looked taken aback for a moment before he, in vain, tried to look nonchalant._

 _What an amateur._

" _Are you aware of how many charges we have you on record for?" he settled on, giving Charlotte a look that instead of looking intimidating looked borderline ridiculous, "You've murdered an officer…"_

" _Self-defense."_

" _You've physically assaulted Jason and Kenneth DiLaurentis…"_

 _At this, Charlotte rolled her eyes._

" _Unlawfully harassed underage girls for the past two years…"_

" _Are you done now?" Charlotte interrupted, her patience beginning to wear thin, "Because I guarantee you that I can prove my innocence."_

 _Holbrook raised an eyebrow in slight curiosity._

" _Just like the last time you were here," he said, "I'm not sure what you have to bargain with."_

 _Charlotte let a small smirk spread on her lips._

" _You can start with the tape recorder in my left pocket." she stated matter-of-factly, "The tape covers a certain…exchange I had with Kenneth DiLaurentis this evening. And while you're at it, if you'll let me access my phone, I can implicate him even more."_

 _At Holbrook's silence, Charlotte continued._

" _Or, you can lock me up, never to see the light of day again, and never know the truth." she finished calmly, leveling Holbrook with a haughty look that only members of the DiLaurentis family had ever managed to successfully pull off, "Your choice."_

 _Needless to say, Holbrook was intrigued by her offer and left her alone in the interrogation room, going to speak with his superiors about the situation. As Charlotte sat alone in the interrogation room, she thought about where she had ended up. Come to think of it, she was really grateful that she had set a tape recorder to record her encounter with Kenneth. She wasn't sure how else she could implicate him other than to turn his own words against him._

 _As she considered her next move carefully, she became aware of a silhouette in a dark red coat entering the interrogation room. The person's hood was up, so she couldn't get a good view of their face. Despite this, she felt a sense of familiarity in the way the person carried themselves._

 _As the person sat down in the seat Holbrook previously occupied, they slowly pulled off their hood, much like Charlotte had done hours earlier in order to reveal herself to Alison. A wave of disbelief and relief went throughout her body._

 _It was Melissa Hastings._

 _For a while, the two women said nothing to each other, their gazes locked in a fierce battle that neither one was willing to look away from. Melissa raised a hand to wipe a stray tear away from Charlotte's face. She hadn't even registered the fact that she was crying._

" _Melissa…" she started before Melissa hushed her, grasping both hands quietly in her own._

" _I don't have much time here." Melissa said hurriedly, "I know about A. I know about everything."_

 _Charlotte couldn't really say that she was surprised. Despite not wanting to drag Melissa into her mess, she was glad that the brunette understood what she had gone through for the past two years._

" _And while I'm still pissed that you left without any explanation," Melissa's voice had rose sternly before it softened again in resignation, "I understand why you did what you did, and that doesn't change how I feel about you."_

 _Melissa paused, biting her lip before taking a deep breath._

" _I still love you Charlotte," she declared firmly, squeezing Charlotte's hand gently as she continued, "and I had to let you know that."_

" _I…" Charlotte started before she burst into tears, the force of her crying wracking her body as she looked away from Melissa's loving eyes, "You deserve better than me."_

 _Charlotte felt the distinct loss of Melissa's hands in her own before the same hands cupped her cheeks, lifting her face so that she could make eye contact with her._

" _I deserve the best," Melissa agreed, her thumbs gently wiping away Charlotte's tears as she held back tears of her own, "and that's why I deserve you. You're it for me. I want marriage, and kids, and a white picket fence, and all the other sentimental crap the protagonists say in movies when trying to declare their love."_

 _Charlotte closed her eyes and took in Melissa's words, a small smile gracing her features. To hear that the brunette still loved her, despite everything, made her feel as if she were worth something in this world. Not many people had ever told her that they loved her, and most of the time when they did, there were conditions behind said love._

 _There were still a few things that Charlotte didn't understand, however…_

" _How exactly did you get access to this room?" Charlotte gestured to the room around them as best as she could while still handcuffed before another, seemingly random, thought dawned on her, "You were the one who bribed that officer to let me go, weren't you?"_

 _For her credit, Melissa managed to look innocent for all of ten seconds before an almost bashful expression shone on her features._

" _I did." she admitted, "Barry was always a good officer, but he could never quite say no to a pretty face in need."_

 _Charlotte rolled her eyes. It was evident that Melissa hadn't become any more modest in their time apart. Melissa pushed a small card across the table towards Charlotte. The card had the name "Melissa di Angelo" on it, and other credentials that would make one assume that she was a crime scene investigator from Philadelphia._

" _di Angelo?" Charlotte raised an eyebrow._

 _Melissa shrugged._

" _My grandmother's maiden name before she married Papa Hastings." she stopped once Charlotte gave her a look, "What? She's Italian!"_

 _Charlotte smiled as Melissa tried to justify her name choice._

" _Aren't the officers in this precinct going to cross examine your credentials?"_

 _At this, Melissa snorted, almost looking insulted._

" _Please." she murmured, "You're not the only one who can hack into a database."_

" _And the fake ID?"_

 _Melissa grinned wickedly, her dark eyes shining in amusement._

" _Eric Kahn has never been able to tell me no."_

 _Before Charlotte could say anything else, Holbrook re-entered the room. At seeing Melissa in the room, he frowned._

" _Ma'am, you're not supposed to be in…" he started before Melissa cut him off abruptly, showing him the ID card Eric Kahn had made for her._

" _Melissa di Angelo, crime scene investigator from the Philly PD." she declared with such conviction that Charlotte was almost taken aback at it, "I'm just doing my job."_

 _With one last glance at Charlotte, Melissa strode confidently out of the room, leaving Charlotte with a renewed sense of hope._

 **Present Day – Age 30**

After spending five long years at Welby, Charlotte DiLaurentis could honestly say that she was ready to live life to its fullest. She knew that Alison's friends didn't completely trust her, but was grateful that they testified on her behalf to the judge, prompting the latter to release her from the institution. Though Welby was drastically different from Radley, in a positive way, Charlotte was still glad to finally be free. She had her sisters, her brother, and a girlfriend waiting for her after all.

Speaking of said girlfriend, on a particularly nice evening, Melissa had invited her to dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant located in the less populated areas of Rosewood. She had managed to get reservations for a private booth in the restaurant. As they feasted on their dinner, a chicken tetrazzini for Charlotte and a creamy basil and tomato pasta for Melissa, the latter was abnormally quiet.

"Everything okay Mel?"

At that, Melissa placed her fork on the table and sighed deeply, looking up to make eye contact with Charlotte.

"You know I love you, right?"

Charlotte nodded. If these past five years had taught her anything, it was that Melissa Hastings always had and always will love her.

"If this whole A drama with your father has taught me anything," Melissa continued, "it's that life is too short to not take full advantage of all the opportunities that life throws at you."

Charlotte reached across the table and squeezed Melissa's hand in support. Something had caused the brunette to become very sentimental, and whatever it was causing a slight frown, potentially from nerves, to appear on her face.

"You can tell me anything Mel." Charlotte soothed, running her fingers gently along the smooth skin of Melissa's hand.

With a slight smile, Melissa nodded, gently pulling her hand out of Charlotte's as she stood up from her chair. Charlotte stared at her in confusion until the brunette got down on one knee, careful not to let her gorgeous blue dress touch the ground. An involuntary gasp left Charlotte's lips.

Melissa couldn't be doing what she thought she was doing, _could she_?

"I know that you deserve a million candles lit and a whole orchestra playing your favorite song," Melissa said gently, "and dozens of flowers and fireworks spelling your name, but we've never been the type for theatrics."

Melissa grinned, as if a thought had just occurred to her.

"After all, if I pull out all the stops now, what's left for our anniversaries to come?"

By now, Charlotte eyes had watered and for the first time in a long time, the tears were ones of joy instead of pain and sorrow.

"So, Charlotte DiLaurentis." Melissa said lovingly, showcasing another magical aspect of her being by producing a small velvet box out of seemingly nowhere, "Will you do me the honor of spending the rest of your life as my wife?"

Charlotte nodded instantly, a joyful exclamation of "yes" leaving her lips as Melissa slipped the ring onto her left ring finger.

 _A perfect fit_.

As Melissa stood up from bended knee, Charlotte embraced her tightly, pressing her lips to Melissa's in what was the most heartfelt kiss of her life. After a few minutes, the two broke apart, foreheads resting against one another.

"What about Spencer?" Charlotte breathed.

She was still very much aware of the fact that despite testifying on her behalf, Spencer Hastings didn't completely trust her.

Melissa pulled her into a tight hug, burying her head in Charlotte's blonde locks as she took a deep breath, seemingly at peace. As she pulled back, she cupped Charlotte's face in her hands once more.

"When we get married, she'll be _our_ sister," Melissa insisted gleefully, "and you'll just have to help me deal with her then."

Melissa hesitated.

"Besides, Alex got kind of got her used to the idea of you being around more. You know how she _adores_ you."

At that moment, Charlotte couldn't be any happier. Yes, her parents had locked her up in a mental asylum for years for embracing the person she always knew that she was. Yes, she had gotten wrapped up in her father's twisted scheme for revenge, but none of that mattered any longer.

She had finally gotten her own little slice of heaven, and nothing, absolutely _nothing_ , would get in her way of happiness ever again.


	4. Melissa

Perfection had always been very important to Melissa Hastings. That was an undeniable fact throughout her whole life. As a result, when the unexpected occurred, something that she hadn't explicitly planned for, it was safe to say that it threw her a bit off kilter. Yet, when all was said and done, she couldn't complain about all she had been through. Perfect or not, those experiences shaped the person she became and the life she adored, allowing her to accept the imperfections as perfections.

 _ **Age 3**_

 _By the age of 3, Melissa Hastings was above average when compared to others her age. She could already read kindergarten level books without much hassle, tell different animal sounds apart, and properly articulate her desires._

 _Long story short, she was brilliant._

 _As she came from a family of prestigious Ivy League graduates, it was practically expected that she would be bright. Every time family friends would come to visit, her parents, Peter and Veronica Hastings, would waste no time in showcasing their daughter's talents._

" _It's so nice of you to visit us Mrs. Grunwald." Veronica Hastings said politely as she led her former sorority House Mother into her living room. Before becoming the House Mother for Cicero College, Mrs. Grunwald had a brief stint as a House Mother at the University of Pennsylvania, "I haven't seen you in so long."_

 _Mrs. Grunwald took a seat on the living room couch, a tight smile on her features. Even in her younger years, Mrs. Grunwald always had a very severe countenance. The fact that there was even a smile on her face in the first place spoke volumes._

" _Thank you for having me." she replied, her unusually colored blue eyes trailing to Melissa, who was sitting in her father's lap atop a rocking chair, "You must be Melissa."_

 _With an air of confidence, yet lacking the uncontrolled enthusiasm that other toddlers her age exuded, Melissa walked over to Mrs. Grunwald, extending her hand out for a firm handshake._

" _Melissa Hastings ma'am." Melissa spoke, her tone measured, the slightly high tone of her voice revealing her true age, "Pleasure to meet you."_

 _Mrs. Grunwald accepted the gesture and met Melissa's dark gaze steadily, the corners of her lips rising in a more genuine manner as the toddler didn't look away bashfully. Most people, adults included, felt unnerved by the shade of blue that decorated Mrs. Grunwald eyes, but it appeared that this child had more tenacity than most._

" _What is it that you would like to be when you're older, dear one?"_

 _At hearing the question, Peter Hastings sat up further in his chair._

" _She's only just turned three." he explained in an attempt to lower Mrs. Grunwald's presumably high expectations, "As bright as she is, we don't really think that she's thought about…"_

" _Businesswoman." Melissa interjected suddenly, an intensity in her dark brown eyes that caused Mrs. Grunwald to fix Peter with a slightly knowing look, "I want to be a businesswoman, ma'am. Make lots of money."_

 _As Peter stared at his daughter in a mixture of shock and pride, and Veronica beamed widely, Mrs. Grunwald didn't seem surprised. It was as if she was expecting that very answer._

" _Very good dear one." Mrs. Grunwald reached forward to smooth down some of Melissa's hair, the gesture soothing Melissa to the point that she began to feel sleepy, letting out a tiny yawn, "Come. Sit on my lap. It would not do to have you fall asleep standing."_

 _Needing to hear no further encouragement, Melissa crawled into Mrs. Grunwald's arms and despite only knowing her for a few minutes, the older woman made her feel secure. She vaguely registered as Mrs. Grunwald began bouncing her on her lap, slowly lulling her into a peaceful sleep._

 _Sensing that Melissa was almost asleep, Mrs. Grunwald turned to Veronica, a sharp look on her face._

" _I suspect that you called me here for a reason." she murmured softly, taking care not to wake the now sleeping Melissa, "Now would you like to tell me what that was?"_

 _At this, Peter snorted before his wife shot him a chiding glare._

" _We wanted to know what you saw in her future." Veronica clarified. It was evident that despite being a firm believer in empirical evidence, she still very much trusted the judgment of her old House Mother, "Will she be happy?"_

 _Before the question had fully left Veronica's lips, Mrs. Grunwald abruptly stopped her rocking motions, the disturbance causing Melissa to shift slightly before nuzzling closer to Mrs. Grunwald's chest. She was awake now, but regulated her breathing in a way that wouldn't automatically give her away._

" _She will have a great love in the future." Mrs. Grunwald predicted, "A love full of death, despair, and fear. You mustn't try to get in between it. It will only drive a wedge between yourselves and her."_

 _Peter's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion._

" _A love full of death and despair?" he questioned before sighing deeply, "How is that reassuring?"_

 _Mrs. Grunwald looked to him sternly, the force of her gaze almost forcing him to shrink in on himself._

" _Life is not reassuring." she declared, a slight passion entering her voice as she continued, "Life is not perfect, and it certainly isn't easy. Those are all things she will come to know through the course of her great love. Love is not perfect. There will be many mistakes, mistakes that your money cannot buy away."_

 _Melissa listened to Mrs. Grunwald quietly. She didn't quite understand all of the things that she said, but the one thing that stuck to her was the notion that love was not perfect. To her, it didn't make any sense. Her parents thought that she was perfect, and they loved her for it. So why couldn't love be perfect._

 _She didn't realize that in the years to come, she would figure out the answer, but at age 3, Melissa Hastings vowed to be nothing short of the best._

 _ **Age 6**_

" _Why don't you go and play with a few other kids Mel?" Peter Hastings suggested to his six-year-old daughter Melissa._

 _Melissa frowned at the idea._

" _But dad," she started, "the other kids are boring and slow. They don't even know how to multiply three digit numbers, or read chapter books."_

 _Peter stifled a laugh at the indignant look on his young daughter's face._

" _Maybe you'll make a new one today." Veronica, Melissa's mother, added gently before her voice turned stern, "You can't keep avoiding the other children Melissa. Socializing is a part of development."_

 _Melissa refrained from rolling her eyes. This wasn't anything she hadn't heard before. Ever since she had started school, Melissa had been somewhat of an outcast. The other kids teased her for being "too smart." None of them wanted to play with someone who was the smartest kid in class._

 _In an attempt to help Melissa with her socializing skills, Peter and Veronica took Melissa to Bucks County's Children Museum early one Saturday morning. They figured that if she were in an environment where other children could have fun while being academic, she would be able to find at least one person to befriend._

" _Look," Peter tried to reason with Melissa, "I have to go to work now, so I'm going to leave you with your mother. If you at least_ _ **try**_ _to make one friend today, I'll buy you the last Harry Potter book."_

 _Melissa's eyes widened in excitement. She had already read books 1-6 and was eager to find out what happened to Harry Potter and his friends during the final fight against Voldemort. She was originally going to ask for the book for Christmas, but it appeared that Peter was one step ahead of her._

" _Deal." Melissa said firmly, shaking her father's hand before turning on her heel, going in the direction of where other children were playing._

 _She didn't bother turning back to see if her parents were watching her, or if her father had already left for work. After all, a Hastings never exudes anything but confidence, and looking back would show that she was afraid._

 _Even though she could admit to herself that she was slightly nervous, that didn't mean that her parents had to know that._

 _Soon enough, Melissa noticed a lone blond boy playing by the exhibit entitled "The Big Dig." This was perfect for her. Not only were there no cliques of children surrounding the exhibit, but this would also give Melissa one on one time with a potential friend._

 _Taking a deep breath, Melissa walked over to the boy's side. The boy was so engrossed in the exhibit that he didn't even notice Melissa standing next to him._

" _Are you finished using that trowel?" Melissa asked him politely, albeit nervously. She cringed internally, a nervous tone did not equate to a confident one, and Hastingses were supposed to be confident._

 _As the boy turned around, Melissa was met with the prettiest set of gray-blue eyes she had ever seen. Coupled with his golden hair, it was as if he was Melissa's own personal angel. Her stomach felt tingly as he shot her a small smile._

 _The boy relinquished the trowel to her, introducing himself as "Charlie." Melissa looked down at the tool, giving herself an opportunity to gather her nerve before looking back up at Charlie, a genuine grin gracing her features as she returned the favor and introduced herself._

 _When silence dawned on the two of them, Melissa broke it by insisting that they work together on solving the mysteries of the exhibit. Much to her excitement, Charlie agreed and together, the two spent the better part of 15 minutes working together._

" _Say, Charlie." Melissa spoke up once they had accomplished their given tasks, "What do you want to be when you get older?"_

 _Melissa remembered Mrs. Grunwald asking her the same question when she was a bit younger, and was genuinely interested in learning more about her new friend. After all, he did seem a lot brighter than the other kids she went to school with._

 _What Melissa didn't expect, however, was for Charlie's face to fall. She immediately regretted asking and was about to try and rectify the situation before Charlie began speaking once again._

 _He described wanting to be like his mother, especially in terms of physical appearance, but acknowledged the fact that his father was quick to harshly disagree with his endeavors. The poor boy looked so disheartened that he didn't have the courage to look Melissa in the eye as he explained himself._

 _At that moment, Melissa knew she had to do something. She couldn't risk her new friend shutting down because of something that she had said. Despite not being an overly affectionate person, Melissa grabbed Charlie and pulled him into a tight hug, smiling to herself as Charlie gingerly returned the hug. Placing a hand under his chin, Melissa made sure that Charlie maintained eye contact with her as she spoke._

" _Listen to me Charlie." she said reassuringly, her tone firm, "Be whoever you want to be. Don't let anyone choose the way you live your life."_

 _At first, Charlie said nothing, leading Melissa to believe that she had said the wrong thing once again. As panic began to settle in her chest, Charlie beamed at her, the sight making all of Melissa's unwarranted worries disappear. As he thanked her for her kind words, Melissa couldn't help but be proud of herself. She had done right by her friend._

 _Before Melissa had a chance to say more to her new friend, both of their mothers appeared, the looks on their faces denoting that their day of fun had come to a close. She noticed a younger blond boy tugging at Charlie's mother's dress and surmised that this was Charlie's younger brother, Jason. She had seen Jason around school, the latter being a year younger than her, but had no idea that he was related to Charlie._

 _What really struck Melissa was the look of familiarity in both of their mothers' eyes. It was if they knew each other from somewhere, and didn't exactly have the fondest memory of one another._

"… _cut this short." Jessica was saying, bring Melissa out of her musings, "Charlie, tell your friend goodbye."_

 _If Melissa was certain of anything at all, it was that the look of disappointment in Charlie's eyes matched the disappointment that gave her heart a dull ache._

" _It was nice meeting you Melissa." Charlie said gently, giving Melissa the same little smile he gave her when he first met her as he hugged her once more, "I hope we meet again."_

" _Me too Charlie." Melissa murmured gently in his ears before pulling back, and if Melissa was true to herself, those had to be the most heartfelt words she had ever uttered to anyone outside of her small family._

 _As Charlie waved goodbye to Melissa during his exit from the museum, Melissa sighed to herself. She didn't know why, but she got the distinct feeling that this would be the last time she would see Charlie for a very long while._

" _Your father is coming home early today." Veronica informed her as they made their way to the car that brought them to the museum, "I told him to pick up the last Harry Potter book for you. I'm so proud of the way you conducted yourself today."_

 _Melissa only nodded half-heartedly at her mother as she stared out of the window of the car. The sky, which had turned stormy gray, reminded her of Charlie's eyes._

 _As she lamented about leaving her one true friend, a steely resolve filled her._

 _If Charlie couldn't be in her life forever, she would vow to live as perfectly as she could for the both of them._

 _ **Age 7**_

 _By the time Melissa Hastings turned seven, she was no longer an only child. Spencer Jill Hastings had been brought unceremoniously into her life, one dark, foreboding evening. Melissa couldn't even recall her mother being pregnant. The only thing she knew was that her mother went out early that day, and didn't return until many hours later._

" _This is your sister, Melissa." Veronica said as she eased herself down onto one of the loveseats in the living room, "Her name is Spencer."_

 _Melissa didn't know much about where babies came from, but didn't question her mother on it. The elder Hastings woman seemed tired, her lips in a thin line as she stared at Melissa's father, Peter, who was hovering near the stairs._

" _Would you like to hold her?" Veronica called to Melissa, cradling baby Spencer to her chest._

" _Look Mel, she's calling for you." Though Melissa was young, she knew that the smile Peter had plastered on his face was only for her benefit. There was an unspoken tension between her parents, and she didn't know what to make of it._

 _Sure enough, little Spencer had turned her head in Melissa's direction. Her eyes were squinting, and her cheeks were rosy red, but she looked awfully focused for a newborn._

 _Slowly, Melissa moved over to sit by her mother's side._

" _Make sure you cradle her head." Veronica instructed as she gingerly placed the baby into her older daughter's arms, "Just like that Melissa."_

 _As Melissa peered down at her new baby sister, she was stunned to see similar dark orbs staring back at her._

" _She has brown eyes, just like me." Melissa beamed excitedly, being careful not to rock Spencer too hard with her movements, "I'll teach her everything I know! How to add and subtract. Multiply and divide. Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky…"_

" _Easy there Mel." Peter chuckled, an amused glint in his bright green, yet still tormented looking eyes, "She was only just born."_

 _At the sound of her father's voice, Melissa acknowledged him with a brief glance before being captivated by her new baby sister once more._

" _No time like the present." she insisted._

 _As baby Spencer looked up at her, Melissa made a vow to herself. She would always protect Spencer, no matter the cost._

 _Her family would be perfect, and maybe one day, when they had achieved total perfection, she would invite her friend Charlie to join their family so he didn't have to suffer as much as he already did._

 _ **Age 13**_

 _Melissa Hastings was 13-years-old the first time that she truly had to protect her younger sister, Spencer. The younger girl, aged six, often came home with various cuts and bruises that she would explain with half-hearted excuses._

' _I just tripped and fell Lissa, honest.' Spencer would tell her, her eyes frightened, 'Don't tell mom and dad. Please!'_

 _On one such day, Melissa pieced things together._

 _Her parents had entrusted her with walking her younger sister home from school. Since the combined elementary and middle school was within walking distance from the Hastings household, Peter and Veronica allowed Melissa to walk Spencer home._

 _As Melissa got closer to the elementary school playground, where the younger students were being dismissed, she heard the distinct sound of her younger sister's voice._

" _Please don't push me again Kendra." Spencer had whimpered desperately, her back pressed against one of the playground's fences as an older girl cornered her, "I promise I'll have lunch for you tomorrow."_

 _The bully in question, Kendra, smiled wickedly, pushing Spencer into the fence more aggressively._

" _You'd better." she growled, raising a fist menacingly at Spencer, "But just for insurance…"_

 _She made to punch Spencer but was intercepted by Melissa's firm grasp. Neither Kendra nor Spencer had noticed her silently approaching them. Kendra roughly shook off Melissa's grip, whirling around to face Melissa. Spencer took the distraction as an opportunity to hide behind Melissa, clutching tightly to the fabric of her older sister's field hockey shirt._

" _What's the deal Hastings?" Kendra glared at Melissa, obviously an attempt to faze the older Hastings, "Since when are you the playground protector?"_

 _Melissa, unperturbed, stared down Kendra. Kendra was a year younger than Melissa and at age 12, the second best offensive player on the school's girl's field hockey team._

 _Second best to Melissa Hastings._

" _That's my little sister you're bothering." Melissa said evenly, taking a step towards Kendra and relishing in how the younger girl took a slight step backwards, "No one messes with my little sister."_

 _Kendra, refusing to back down, scowled at Melissa._

" _Oh yeah?" she jeered, trying to appear tougher than she truly was as she got into Melissa's personal space, "And what're you gonna do about it, Ms. Teacher's Pet?"_

 _Melissa sighed to herself. There was no reasoning with bullies like Kendra. She turned to Spencer and smiled encouragingly._

" _Let's go home, yeah?" she smiled. Spencer nodded eagerly._

 _Before the sisters could take a few steps away, Melissa felt herself being abruptly pushed forward, causing her to stumble forward in an effort to stop herself from falling._

" _Melissa!" Spencer cried out._

 _The sound of Kendra's laughter angered Melissa, and she immediately saw red. The next thing she knew, Kendra was curled up into a ball on the ground as Melissa stood angrily above her, her own field hockey stick clutched tightly in her fist. The beginnings of bruises were beginning to show on Kendra's shins from where Melissa assumed that she had struck the bully._

 _Melissa leaned close to Kendra, enjoying as the younger girl cowered away from her._

" _I do hope you understand that Spencer will not be delivering_ _ **anything**_ _to you from now on." Melissa declared firmly, her tone unwavering, "Least of all her lunch. Do I make myself clear?"_

 _Kendra curled further in on herself, nodding quickly._

 _As Melissa straightened up, she took in the shocked gazes of the other kids on the playground. Though they were all witnesses, Melissa knew what Rosewood's youth was like. No one would tell on her unless they could directly benefit from doing so and if the claps were anything to go by, they all felt that Kendra got what she deserved._

 _Slowly, Melissa turned towards Spencer, immediately fearing that she had frightened the younger girl with her impulsive act of violence. Instead, she was surprised when Spencer launched herself at her, wrapping her arms tightly around her waist in a firm hug._

" _I love you Melissa." Spencer murmured into the fabric of Melissa's shirt, "You're the best big sister ever!"_

 _Melissa felt her heart swell in pride as she ran her hands comfortingly through her younger sister's hair._

" _I love you too Spencey." Melissa grinned as their heartfelt embrace was broken, grabbing onto her sister's hand, "Let's go home."_

 _In hindsight, using an act of violence against a bully wasn't the most appropriate solution. Yet, as Melissa walked home with her younger sister in tow, the younger girl walking with a bounce in her step, Melissa knew that she would always protect her sister by any means necessary…even if that entailed doing things that may ruin any chance of attaining perfection._

 _ **Age 16**_

" _Come on Melissa." Ezra Fitzgerald goaded his classmate, his grin matching his sparkling blue eyes, "Unless you're…afraid."_

 _Melissa sniffed in indignance, choosing to eat her lunch silently. Ever since entering high school two years ago, Ezra Fitzgerald had been the only boy whose attention didn't make her want to hurl. Ian Thomas was an idiot, Garrett Reynolds was a follower who was probably dating a middle school girl, and she had never had any reason to associate with Jason DiLaurentis, other than the fact that they were neighbors._

 _Ezra, at least, had the decency to appreciate classical literature and planned on being an author. Though that profession wasn't very ambitious in the eyes of a Hastings, Melissa found herself reluctantly impressed. For a person who came from such a rich and stuffy family, as Melissa did, Ezra sure took it upon himself to defy each and every one of his family's expectations of him._

" _I am_ _ **not**_ _afraid." Melissa insisted haughtily, crossing her arms over her chest, "But I am not sneaking into a mental asylum on Halloween."_

 _Ezra had proposed that the two of them, instead of staying at school for the evening Halloween bash that Rosewood High would be hosting, sneak into Radley Sanitarium. He claimed that he was working on an original story that featured the patients of an asylum and needed proper inspiration. Melissa thought the idea to be absolutely absurd, and told him so._

" _It'll be easy." Ezra continued, his tone unrelenting, "We show up there around 8 o'clock, get past security, and…"_

" _How do you propose that we bypass them?" Melissa interjected, her analytical mind thinking of a thousand ways this scheme could go wrong, "Distract them? Hack into their servers and…"_

" _Perfect!" Ezra slammed his fist down on the table in excitement, causing a few stares to come their way, "Don't you know how to hack computers? You can hack into their system…"_

 _Melissa snorted in annoyance, cutting off Ezra's excited rant. She was a genius, but she didn't want to resort to illegal activity._

" _I'm not hacking into a government run facility." Melissa said matter-of-factly, "Just because I changed your gym grade from a C to a B+ does_ _ **not**_ _mean that I'm going to fall victim to your pleading eyes…_ _ **again**_ _."_

 _Melissa should've known that telling Ezra Fitzgerald no would be futile. It was this thought that caused her to grumble to herself as Ezra pulled into Radley's parking lot. She couldn't believe that she had been roped into another one of Ezra's crazy schemes._

" _I hate you." she glared harshly at Ezra, hoping to convey her discontentment in a single glare._

 _Ezra only smiled at her in return, beckoning for her to exit the vehicle. As the two of them approached Radley Sanitarium, Melissa pulled her coat around her more tightly. For some reason, this place gave her the chills. Once they entered, they sat on one of the couches adorning the lobby._

" _Do you have the stuff?" Ezra whispered to her, pointing to Melissa's phone._

" _Stop making this sound more juvenile than it already is!" Melissa huffed to herself, scrolling through the apps on her cell phone in order to locate the hacking software she had downloaded, "Of course I have it."_

 _As Melissa continued her search, Ezra began to tap his feet impatiently. He often did this when nervous._

" _What the hell are you nervous for?" Melissa hissed, taking a break in her search to glare at Ezra for the hundredth time since the beginning of the day, "This was_ _ **your**_ _idea."_

 _Ezra shrugged in an effort to steady his nerves. It didn't work._

" _I didn't think you'd actually agree to this."_

 _Melissa's eyes widened, and she had to restrain herself from strangling Ezra._

" _Are you freaking kidding me?" she almost yelled, causing Ezra to attempt to hush her, "Do_ _ **not**_ _hush me! Are you out of your…"_

 _She abruptly stopped her rant when she noticed that an orderly had approached them. The name tag on his chest displayed the name "Eddie Lamb."_

" _May I help the two of you?"_

 _Ezra gaped at the man in shock and Melissa internally rolled her eyes. As usual, she would have to do everything herself._

" _We were on our way home and it got awfully chilly outside." Melissa lied through her teeth, garnering a surprised look from Ezra, "We only meant to stop in here for a few minutes of warmth but got sidetracked by how…welcoming this place is."_

 _After hearing Melissa's explanation, Eddie stared into her eyes for a long time, as if trying to decipher whether or not she was telling the truth. Whatever he found in her eyes caused him to shrug and walk away, seemingly satisfied with her explanation._

 _With that out of the way, Melissa set her efforts to hacking into the asylum's sound system. Soon enough, the song "Through the Trees" from the movie "Jennifer's Body" began to play. Obviously, this was out of the normal for the asylum, as the majority of the surrounding orderlies took off to find the source of the sound. The only remaining orderly was dozing off in a chair._

 _Tugging sharply on Ezra's sleeve, Melissa started walking down one of the narrow halls of the asylum. The hallways were dark, but that was to be expected. After all, visiting hours were over. Ezra, by this time, seemed to have gotten over his initial nerves and was now humming to himself in excitement._

" _Shut up." Melissa hissed to him quietly, pinching him for good measure, "Do you want someone to…"_

" _Is someone there?" a voice called out in the darkness._

 _Melissa froze and from his place behind her, Ezra did the same. Slowly, but surely, a figure became visible in the darkness. It appeared to be a boy, around the same age as them. As he got closer to them, Melissa couldn't help but notice that his features were familiar._

 _Gray-blue eyes_

 _Blond hair_

 _Perfect nose_

" _Charlie?" Melissa breathed out._

 _The boy in question stopped in his tracks, apparently startled. Ezra nudged Melissa urgently._

" _You know him?" he asked in disbelief._

 _Both Charlie and Melissa ignored Ezra, too focused on one another._

" _Melissa?" Charlie's voice was a slight whisper._

 _Immediately, Melissa engulfed her childhood friend in a tight hug, clinging to him with the feeling of immense relief in her chest. To her satisfaction, Charlie hugged her back._

" _Is this your secret boyfriend or something?" Ezra teased._

 _Melissa ignored him in favor of looking at Charlie. The same small smile that had appeared on her lips was mirrored on Charlie's._

" _Why're you here?" Melissa asked, not understanding why her seemingly rational friend would be in a mental institution of all places, "You're not crazy."_

 _At this, Charlie's smile diminished a bit and he sighed._

" _Apparently," he started, his words coated in a forlorn tone, "wanting to be myself isn't exactly working for me."_

 _As he finished his condensed explanation, he looked up to see Melissa fixing him with a stern look. It was evident that his short explanation had not been enough to satiate her curiosity._

 _With a wave of his hand, Charlie beckoned for Melissa, and consequently Ezra, to follow him._

" _Come with me." he was trying to appear confident, but his slightly trembling voice gave him away, "I'll explain everything."_

 _As Melissa reminisced on that night, she recalled how Charlie told her of his father's hatred towards his feminine tendencies. He was so eager to get rid of his oldest child that he took the simple incident where Charlie was trying to give his little sister a bath as reason to lock him away in a mental asylum. Melissa couldn't imagine how any parent could be so cruel._

 _He insisted that his mother had a plan to get him out of Radley, but Melissa wasn't too sure. After all, if his mother could allow her firstborn to be unjustly institutionalized, how could she be taken at her word?_

 _As for Ezra, Melissa was pleasantly surprised that both he and Charlie got along. If she was going to have two boys in her life, they may as well get along. After meeting Charlie and learning about some of the harsh realities of asylum life, Ezra abandoned his quest to write the ultimate horror story on asylum patients. He felt that it would hit too close to home._

 _Nevertheless, Melissa was glad that she had went to Radley that night, even if the original reason for going was no longer relevant. She was glad to meet up with a childhood friend, and if Melissa was honest, her crush as well, even if it was just for a short time._

 _She didn't realize that that was the last time she would see Charlie for the next few years, but at age 16, Melissa assumed that her life couldn't get any more perfect._

 _ **Age 17**_

 _By the age of 17, Melissa began to understand that not everything could go according to plan. If everything went just how she imagined they would, she certainly wouldn't be dating Ian Thomas right now._

 _Halfway during senior year, Melissa was able to say, with a degree of certainty, that she would never see Charlie again. Shortly after visiting the blond at Radley Sanitarium, Melissa returned alone, just to see Charlie again. She was disheartened, however, when she found out that the blond was no longer a resident there. It had taken her a few months, but she had been able to come to terms with it._

 _That didn't stop feelings of abandonment from settling deep within her chest._

 _As a result, she was more vulnerable one Wednesday afternoon, when Ian decided to ask her out for what must've been the thousandth time since the 10_ _th_ _grade. She had been the only popular girl who had rejected him, and due to Ian's cocky pride, he had been persistent._

" _Why won't you give me a chance Melissa?" Ian had asked her, showing her his signature grin. Though the grin succeeded in making most of Rosewood High's female population swoon for him, Melissa was less than impressed._

" _I have morals Thomas." she sneered, trying to get back to a conversation she had been having with Ezra._

 _Ian, it would seem, was unable to take a hint, because he abruptly blocked Ezra from Melissa's view, resting his arm on top of her locker in an attempt to get Melissa's focus back onto him._

" _Doesn't it get lonely being the Ice Queen all the time?" Ian teased, his grin growing even wider as he took in her frustrated expression, "Just give me one chance. One chance is all I need."_

 _Melissa wanted to say no. Every fiber of her being was urging her to reject the smug boy in front of her, dump her iced coffee on top of his head, and stride down the hallways with her head held high._

" _Pick me up at 6 on Friday." was what Melissa said instead, turning on her heel and trying, in vain, to ignore Ian's cheers at having finally succeeded._

 _As Ezra caught up to her, Melissa ignored his questioning stare._

" _What the hell are you thinking?" Ezra exclaimed, despite Melissa's continued silence, "Do you have any idea what you just agreed to?"_

 _The truth of the matter was that Melissa did, in fact, know what she had agreed to, but she knew Ezra wouldn't understand. He had a companion in his girlfriend Jackie and though Ezra said that their relationship would never get between his friendship with Melissa, the latter was tired of third wheeling. She was tired of bearing witness to the loving relationship that she wished she could've had with Charlie._

 _She just had to maintain hope that Ian would be good enough._

 _ **Age 18**_

 _By the time Melissa turned 18, she was beginning to realize that there was no such thing as having a perfect life. There would always be unexpected things to deal with, but it wasn't all the time that one could have the right tools to cope with it._

 _The first unexpected thing that occurred was an argument between Melissa and her younger sister, Spencer. That's not to say that the sisters_ _ **never**_ _argued, but it was nothing as harsh as this specific argument._

 _Melissa had asked Jason for a ride home from Philly. She had wanted to scout out UPenn one more time before moving her furniture into the apartment her parents had bought her. Unfortunately for her, her car wouldn't start and she had broken up with Ian over his constant infidelities, so she couldn't ask the latter for a ride._

 _Luckily, despite not having any reason to help her, Jason decided on being sweet and giving her a lift home. Once he had pulled up to her house, a silence had dawned on the two of them. His earlier words plagued her mind._

' _You deserve better.'_

 _That had obviously been a jab at Ian, and Melissa couldn't help but smile internally at the words. As she stared into Jason's dark green eyes, she felt a calm wash over her, coupled with a sense of familiarity. Her reminded her so much of Charlie, but that was to be expected._

 _They were brothers after all._

 _When thinking of that night, Melissa could never be sure of who kissed who first, only that somehow, they ended up kissing. Melissa tried to ignore the pang of guilt that told her she was betraying Charlie's memory, but before she could get too caught up in her emotions, her father abruptly started banging on the car window. He had looked furious and before Melissa knew it, she was sitting at the dining room table, on the receiving end of a lecture._

" _Do you have any idea what you've done?" Peter yelled at her as he angrily paced the room, "I tolerated you dating that Ian kid, but I will not have you sullying yourself with the likes of Jason DiLaurentis! Do you understand me?"_

 _Melissa stared up at him in stony defiance. A Hastings never backed down, and she didn't understand why her father was overreacting so much._

" _Dad." came Spencer's voice, "I have something to –"_

" _Not now Spencer." Peter snapped at her, "Your sister is more important at the moment."_

 _Spencer looked stricken, and Melissa couldn't blame her. If she were in Spencer's position, her expression would be the same._

 _Peter seemed to realize what he had said, but his pride stooped him from taking it back._

 _Wounded, Spencer turned on Melissa, a furious glint in her dark eyes._

" _You're always more important." Spencer ranted, her cheeks turning red as she began to get worked up, "Melissa this. Melissa that. Melissa got into UPenn. Melissa has straight As. Melissa's captain of field hockey. Melissa knows seven languages. I'm sick of it!"_

 _Melissa frowned at this. She understood where her sister was coming from, but she couldn't help that her parents always tried to make achievements a competition between the two of them. She was merely a byproduct of her upbringing._

" _You can't seriously be upset with_ _ **me**_ _for this, can you?" Melissa asked indignantly as she stared her sister down unwaveringly, "I can't help what I've accomplished. All I've ever tried to do was set a good example for –"_

" _I never asked you to! I don't need people like you in my life." Spencer exclaimed, her hands clenched into fists before she took a deep breath, her next words striking pain into Melissa's heart, "I wish you were never born! You're a horrible sister to have and I_ _ **hate**_ _you."_

 _With that, Spencer stomped up the stairs and to her room, the sound of a slam denoting that she had reached her room. Melissa, instead of taking comfort in the look of pity Peter was giving her, sat up straighter._

" _Melissa –" he started off before she cut him off with a shrug._

" _For the record," Melissa said quietly, "I know eight languages, not seven."_

 _Peter sighed deeply before sitting down next to her at the table, reaching over to take one of Melissa's hands in both of his. Melissa resisted the urge to pull her hand away._

" _It's time I told you the truth." he sighed, "Jason's not that bad of a kid."_

 _Melissa refrained from rolling her eyes. This, she knew already. He wasn't bad. The company he kept, however, for lack of a better word, sucked._

" _A long time ago, I met this woman." Peter explained, a faraway look in his green gaze, "She was intelligent, and had the most beautiful, soulful brown eyes. Long story short, I married her."_

 _Melissa listened silently. It was obvious that he was speaking of her mother._

" _Shortly after I married your mother, I met another woman." Peter continued, a conflicted look in his eyes as he avoided Melissa's gaze, "She had the hair of an angel, playful blue eyes, and the sexiest –"_

 _Melissa coughed indignantly._

" _Sorry." Peter said sheepishly, "Anyways, this woman was the most flirtatious person I had ever met, and…without getting into the details…I started having an affair with her."_

 _Melissa stared at her father in disbelief. Her father had always seemed to be the most loyal person Melissa knew, always devoted to the success and happiness of his small family._

" _We weren't careful one night and she got pregnant." Peter said carefully, gauging Melissa's reaction, "She didn't abort the baby."_

 _Melissa froze. He couldn't be talking about Jason. He just couldn't._

" _The woman and her family moved away and I thought I'd never have to think about it again." Peter sighed._

" _Then why are you bringing it up now?" Melissa's voice was barely above a whisper. She maintained hope that her inner hunch was wrong. But as she was quickly beginning to learn…_

 _Hope breeds eternal misery._

 _Peter closed his eyes in an effort to regain courage before opening them once more, staring Melissa straight in the eyes as he exhaled slowly._

" _That boy grew up to be Jason DiLaurentis." he finished finally._

 _Melissa felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. She couldn't even look her father in the eyes as she began to feel sick. Not only did she betray Charlie's memory with his brother, but now the person she had betrayed it with was related to her as well…her own brother._

" _Melissa –" Peter started before he cut himself off. It appeared that he himself didn't know what to say to comfort Melissa._

" _Does mom know?" Melissa asked Peter shakily._

 _The guilty look in his eyes told Melissa everything she needed to know._

" _Is Spencer even my sister?" Melissa asked him sarcastically as she threw her hands up in exasperation, remembering the strange occurrence that brought Spencer into her life all those years ago, "Is she even a Hastings?"_

" _Keep your voice down." Peter hushed her, his eyes frantically looking towards the direction of the stairs, as if to make sure that Spencer wasn't lurking around, "Spencer is as much of a Hastings as Jason is. She is my daughter."_

 _At the startled look in Melissa's eyes, Peter realized that he had said too much._

" _What do you mean 'as much as Jason is?'" Melissa asked him slowly, "Dad –"_

 _Peter sighed before getting up from the table. He placed a firm hand on Melissa's shoulder as his eyes narrowed._

" _Veronica brought Spencer home from the…hospital, and that is all you need to know." Peter said, a tone of finality in his tone, "Spencer is your sister, and that is the end of this discussion."_

 _He made his way for the stairs before hesitating, adding a few more words to his previous statement._

" _This discussion does not leave this house."_

 _With that, Peter ascended the stairs to his bedroom, leaving Melissa alone in the dim light of the dining room._

 _Melissa didn't bother letting Peter know that she was aware of the fact that just because a woman brought a baby home from the hospital, it didn't mean that she was the biological mother._

 _ **Age 22**_

 _Forget the fact that Melissa reunited with Charlie during her first year of college. The young blond boy from her past transitioned into a gorgeous blonde woman named Charlotte, and Melissa couldn't be more thrilled that her old friend was finally living her truth._

 _Forget the fact that Melissa had finally found her romantic happiness by engaging in a relationship with Charlotte during her sophomore year of college._

 _Forget that Spencer had told her years ago how much she hated her._

 _Melissa couldn't allow herself to think about any of this anymore. Her main focus by the age of 22 was to protect Spencer at all costs._

 _It all started when the fateful night that Spencer decided to have a sleepover with her friends, Aria, Hanna, Emily, and Alison, in the Hastings barn. Melissa initially thought nothing of it, as the girls frequently had sleepovers with one another._

 _They were best friends after all._

 _Melissa could never know what possessed her to leave the house that night, but all she knew was that Alison and Spencer were arguing. This was nothing extraordinary, as the two hard-headed younger girls were constantly butting heads. What struck Melissa as odd was when she saw Spencer lift up a shovel._

 _A flash of lightning brought Melissa's attention away from the arguing girls and by the time she regained her focus, Spencer was gone. In her wake, the curled-up body of a blonde was left._

 _She couldn't believe that her sister would actually strike Alison. She knew that they had their strong differences, but didn't think that Spencer would resort to striking down the other girl._

 _Hurriedly, making sure that no one saw her, Melissa raced over to the body. She reached for the girl's arm and felt for a pulse._

 _There was none._

 _In horror, Melissa felt the urge to throw up. Her sister had_ _ **murdered**_ _someone. This wasn't some elementary school mistake that could be rectified. Someone was actually_ _ **dead**_ _._

 _Melissa couldn't bear to turn the body over. She couldn't bear to see the girl's face. That would just make it too real for her. Instead, she gathered her resolve and, using the shovel that Spencer had dropped on the ground earlier, began to dig a hole. She hardly noticed the pain that developed in her arms from her physical labor._

 _Once the hole was to her satisfaction, she abruptly pushed the body in it, wincing as it landed in the hole with a thud. As cruel as Alison was, she deserved better than a shabby hole for a burial ground._

 _However, to protect Spencer, Melissa would've buried Alison anywhere._

 _Feeling as if she should at least let her girlfriend know that Alison was dead, Melissa proceeded to call Charlotte._

 _Straight to voicemail._

 _Undeterred, Melissa called Charlotte again._

 _Straight to voicemail…again._

 _With an irritated huff, Melissa called Charlotte another 18 times before giving up. It wasn't like Charlotte to not answer Melissa's calls. Nervously, she began to pace around her backyard._

 _When she finally heard Charlotte's voice call her name, Melissa startled and spun around, fixing the other girl with an annoyed glare._

" _Do I have to call 911 to get your attention?" Melissa showed her call log, showcasing the 20 unanswered calls._

 _Charlotte seemed apologetic and proceeded to explain herself. Before she could get far in her explanation, Jason arrived on his porch, yelling for Alison, prompting Melissa to drag Charlotte behind some bushes to keep them hidden._

 _Hesitantly, Melissa explained her theory of Spencer killing Alison. She was unsure of how Charlotte would react and for the time being, kept out the part where she buried the blonde. What Melissa didn't expect was for Charlotte to confess to killing Alison herself._

 _Melissa stared at her in shock. If Charlotte had killed Alison, then who did she…_

" _I came to say goodbye Melissa." Charlotte insisted, her voice pained as it brought Melissa out of her silent musings, "I can't stay here."_

" _Then who the hell did I just bury?" she half exclaimed abruptly, careful to keep her volume down in case anyone other than the two of them was lurking around the Hastings backyard that night._

 _Charlotte's expression changed slightly, as if she was contemplating something. Before Melissa could call her out on it, Charlotte leaned forward and pressed a quick and passionate kiss to Melissa's lips._

 _Melissa couldn't help but feel as if the kiss meant goodbye. Yet, she was still confused, and the inquisitive part of her demanded that she sought answers._

" _I don't have time to explain everything." Charlotte continued as she pulled away from Melissa, her tone forlorn, yet determined, "Just remember that I have always loved you Melissa Hastings. That'll never change."_

 _With that, Charlotte took off running, leaving Melissa to yell after her. For the third time in her life, Charlotte was exiting her life._

 _She ought to be used to it by now, but that didn't mean it hurt any less._

 _With a mournful sigh, Melissa made her way back to the Hastings household. As she crawled into her bed, she vowed to herself that when Alison's disappearance was made public, she would play her part and appear dutifully surprised._

 _No one would suspect her of any foul play and if she could help it, Spencer wouldn't be a suspect in anything either._

 _She would play the role of the intelligent Hastings daughter perfectly. She didn't need any siblings' love, and she certainly didn't need romantic love._

 _As her eyes drifted close in preparation for sleep, Melissa couldn't help but think that keeping darkness out of Spencer's life wouldn't be easy, but just like any other task in her life, she vowed to perfect it._

 _ **Age 23**_

 _By age 23, Melissa had figured out that covering up a potential murder could be very difficult. The Rosewood PD was relentless in its investigation of what happened to Alison DiLaurentis, and Alison's friends, including Melissa's sister Spencer, had been questioned multiple times on what truly happened._

 _Had Charlotte been there, they would've been able to work together. Yet, after Charlotte tearfully confessed to Melissa about her role in Alison's death, it was as if the blonde girl disappeared off the surface of the Earth. No amount of calls Melissa put through were successful, and the brunette had long since suspected that she had been blocked._

 _Nevertheless, Melissa wasn't prideful enough to believe that she could cover things up on her own. She would need help._

 _Sighing to herself, she dialed the number of a man she hadn't spoken to in a while._

" _Ezra…it's Melissa." she said quietly into the phone, slightly annoyed that the call had went to voicemail, "I need your help."_

 _Thankfully for Melissa, Ezra was one of the few men in Rosewood who wouldn't turn his back on a friend. After high school, Ezra had decided to defy his mother again and instead of choosing to study law at the University of Pennsylvania, he took courses at Hollis and got his degree in English Literature. Afterwards, he moved to New York and completely left Rosewood, and Melissa, behind._

" _Never thought I'd witness the day that Melissa Hastings would admit to needing help." Ezra joked as he stepped into Melissa's Philly apartment. She was staying there while she came up with an official game plan of how to deal with Rosewood being turned into a crime scene, "Long time no see."_

 _Melissa rolled her eyes. Though she had missed his sarcastic humor, she certainly wouldn't admit it openly to him. It was_ _ **his**_ _fault that they didn't stay in touch after high school._

" _Are you still trying to be a novelist?" Melissa cut straight to the chase, "It's what you went to college for after all?"_

 _Ezra shrugged, his expression nonchalant._

" _I guess." he sounded uncertain, as if he didn't know what to make of his life aspirations, "I'm 23. I have the rest of my…"_

" _What if I gave you the plot for the novel of a lifetime?" Melissa interrupted him, too impatient to hear him go on about how he didn't have to come up with a life plan right this second. All Melissa_ _ **had**_ _was right this second, "Would you be willing to do the research to make this happen?"_

 _Ezra pondered her question for a few minutes, his silence slightly unnerving to Melissa. Just as she opened her mouth to rush his answer, Ezra surprised her._

" _I'm already working on a novel." he insisted, "It has some real elements to, but ultimately, it investigates Alison DiLaurentis' disappearance."_

 _Melissa's heart skipped a beat and she forced herself to continue breathing normally. Even if this was her old friend, she knew that_ _ **anyone**_ _could turn on her._

" _What do you know about that?" Melissa settled on, praying that her voice was as confident as she hoped it would be, "Why even bring that up?"_

 _Ezra stared into her eyes for what felt like hours, but in reality, couldn't have been more than a few minutes. After a while, he sighed to himself, his voice somber when he started speaking once more._

" _I was with Alison the night she disappeared…" he started before stopping himself, shaking his head fervently in what Melissa assumed was an attempt to rid himself of whatever disturbing thoughts were plaguing him at the moment, "Never mind that. Since then, I've been trying to see if_ _ **I**_ _could solve the mystery of her disappearance. If_ _ **I**_ _could be heroic for once in my life."_

 _Ezra paused._

" _If I could finally do something in my life that would make my mother proud."_

 _Melissa couldn't help but think of Ezra's similarity to her sister Spencer in that moment. All the two of them had ever wanted to do was be good enough for their respective parents. Melissa couldn't relate. She had always been the favored child and though Peter tried to deny it on many occasions, it was fact._

 _Regardless, Melissa Hastings was nothing if not cunning._

" _Then help me help you." Melissa implored Ezra, wrapping an arm around his shoulders as she prepared to make her pitch, "I'm trying to solve the same problem. If we work together, you can potentially gain your mother's acceptance, and I can spare Spencer any more unnecessary grief."_

 _She forced a smile to make her point, but Ezra saw right through her. He always had._

" _Say I do this." Ezra crossed his arms, "Say I do all this research, and we lurk around Rosewood trying to be some sort of makeshift Scooby Doo gang. My mother accepts me and Spencer gets to live her life."_

" _That's what I just sai…" Melissa started before Ezra raised his hand in an effort to silence her. Reluctantly, Melissa stopped talking._

" _All of those things happen," Ezra continued, but his eyes narrowed, "but there's something else in this for you. I'm not agreeing to this until you tell me what that is."_

 _Melissa pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes in an effort to rival Ezra. How_ _ **dare**_ _he question her olive branch offering. Before Melissa could got too indignant, Ezra placed both hands on Melissa's shoulders, bending down so they were eye to eye._

" _Please don't lie to me Mel."_

 _With a heavy sigh, Melissa felt the tension slowly leave her body. For most of her life, Melissa had always had the "me against the world" mentality. Everyone posed an obstacle to her reaching her potential, and if she brushed them off long enough, she would be perfect._

 _She never brushed Charlotte off, even when she was Charlie, and as much as she loathed to admit it, she could never turn her back on Ezra._

 _After all, he was the one genuine friend she had left._

" _I'll get Charlotte and my family back."_

 _Melissa didn't offer him any further explanation, and it didn't seem as if Ezra needed it._

* * *

 _Unlike Ezra, Ian Thomas had never been a person that Melissa could depend on. This became apparent to her on the coffee date that she allowed him to take her out on, courtesy of Spencer's guilt. She knew that her sister felt guilty for sabotaging her short-lived relationship with Wren, and for kissing Ian as well. If only to make peace with her sister, Melissa agreed to hear Ian out._

" _I know you miss me, Melissa." It had been apparent within the first five minutes of their date that Ian's cockiness hadn't subsided in the five years since they had dated, "I wanna try to make us work again. We know each other better than anyone else."_

 _Melissa refrained from rolling her eyes. The blond idiot didn't even get her the right coffee – botching it with his own disgusting favorite flavor – and he had the gall to insinuate that two of them knew each other better than anyone else?_

" _Listen, before you turn me down," Ian's voice had lowered to a murmur, and Melissa didn't like where the conversation was going, "there's something I think you should know."_

 _Ian, ever the dramatic man, paused._

" _I know what you did_ _ **that night**_ _…to protect Spencer. It's quite admirable, really, burying a girl to save your little sister's skin." By the grin on Ian's face, one would never guess that he was speaking of such a sinister matter, "It would be a shame if anyone ever caught wind of the video I have on my phone."_

 _Melissa's eyes flickered down to Ian's phone, which – although the screen was dim – clearly showed Melissa's figure, burying someone. Her gaze traveled back up to Ian's, a quiet fury hidden in them._

" _What do you want from me?" she asked through gritted teeth._

 _Ian's smile never left his face._

" _Marry me."_

* * *

 _The wedding was cheap, providing none of the grandeur that Melissa had always dreamed about._

 _The wedding night was even more tedious. Ian actually expected her to perform her "wifely duties." He obviously didn't know her very well._

 _Melissa had always been an expert with mixing concoctions, and acquiring drugs that would make a grown man twice her stature slump over with fatigue was no hard task for her. With a fake smile on her face, she toasted her husband of an hour in their sleazy motel room._

 _Ian raised an eyebrow._

" _I don't trust that." Ian shook his head, "Switch glasses."_

 _It was no surprise to Melissa that Ian didn't trust her, so she switched the glasses with nothing more than a shrug, inwardly cheering as Ian downed his glass in one shot. The man was smart; he had to be – he was blackmailing_ _ **Melissa**_ _of all people, but he was dumb enough to believe that Melissa didn't have a backup plan in case he suspected her of foul play with the drinks. She was only able to take a small sip of her drink before Ian hurriedly took it out of her hand, kissing her sloppily and pushing her towards the bed._

 _Melissa laid pliant, not moving a muscle. Just as their kisses in high school had been, this one was dull, though it was apparent that Ian was pouring his heart and soul into it. His excitement was evident as he pressed himself closer to her._

 _Melissa merely waited. She had timed this perfectly. Ian's movements slowly, but surely, became lethargic, until he collapsed on top of her, not even managing to remove a single item of clothing._

 _In disgust, Melissa pushed Ian off of her, not caring that he nearly fell off of the bed with the force of her push. Her only concern was getting the taste of him out of her mouth. If Ian wanted to be married, fine – he had another thing coming._

* * *

 _Faking a pregnancy was simple. Ian was under the impression that they had slept together, and Melissa was in no mood to tell him otherwise._

 _Staging Ian's suicide was just as simple. No one would ever have suspected the grieving widow, and her father's handgun was back in its original place before he even realized it was missing._

 _ **Age 24**_

 _By the age of 24, Melissa was so tired of trying to explain herself. Spencer was always weary of her (that was nothing new) and trying to pry into her life. She didn't even bother letting Spencer know that she knew about the little stunt her friends tried to play when sneaking into her apartment. At this point in time, if Spencer wanted to think Melissa was behind the grand "A" scheme, let her._

 _At least, she'd be safer that way._

 _If Spencer and her friends were really so convinced that she was A, then Melissa would pretend that the assumption didn't get under her skin. She had had enough of people trying to judge her without asking her._

 _Regardless of how Spencer felt about her, Melissa would always try to protect her._

 _Thinking of all the shady things she had ever done, she couldn't help but wonder if maybe she was to blame for all of this. Maybe if she hadn't been such an overachiever, Spencer wouldn't have gotten addicted to prescription pills, and Melissa wouldn't have buried a girl to protect her sister from the crime she thought she had committed._

 _Maybe then, she wouldn't have been blackmailed for it._

 _She'd never let Spencer know, but she had been getting texts from this_ _ **A**_ _person too, the most incriminating of all being the video that Melissa had made for Spencer, confessing to burying Bethany Young. As such, she confided in her lawyer father, Peter Hastings. The elder Hastings had always provided a sense of comfort for Melissa, and the latter thought that he would give her some sage advice, something that would let her know that everything would be alright._

 _Instead, he sent her to London._

* * *

 _As Melissa entered the doors of a rather clandestine English bar, she sighed to herself. Not only was she guilty of murder, and couldn't muster the intelligence to protect her own sister, but now her father thought sending her out of the country would be a better alternative to letting her stay and having everything potentially blow up in their faces._

" _What'll you be having, love?" The sound of a female bartender's voice, thick with a British accent caught Melissa's attention._

" _I'm sorry." Melissa wasn't even sure why she was apologizing as she looked up to face the bartender, "I'll have a strawberry daiquiri –_ _ **Spencer**_ _?"_

 _Melissa almost had to do a double take. Here, in a London bar of all places, was her little sister, Spencer. The makeup was bolder, and the clothes were more rebellious, but there was no doubt in Melissa's mind that this was Spencer._

 _The Spencer look-a-like rolled her eyes and sighed._

" _You know, you're the second person to come in here and refer to me as this Spencer girl." She scoffed, "I never bought the doppelganger bull."_

 _Melissa narrowed her eyes. If her sister wanted to play these games, so could she._

" _Then who are you?"_

 _The other woman gave a bright grin, turning around temporarily to mix Melissa's requested drink before turning back to face her._

" _Alex." Alex stated, her tone slightly cocky, "Alex Drake."_

* * *

 _In hindsight, agreeing to go to this woman's flat wasn't a safety conscious choice, but Melissa found herself believing the tale that Alex Drake wove. The young girl was merely a drifter, a person who had never had much of a home – or a family for that matter – and Melissa's heart ached at the similarities between this woman and Charlotte._

 _Ironically, Jason finally wasn't the only relative that she and Charlotte shared._

 _Nevertheless, as Melissa made herself comfortable in her half-sister's home, she couldn't help but notice how scarce the place was. Not many pictures lined the walls, and there wasn't much furniture either._

" _So, tell me more about this sister of ours." Alex was saying. Melissa hadn't even realized that she'd spaced out, "You say she looks just like me. Got proof?"_

 _Melissa took out her phone and showed her a slightly dated picture of both herself and Spencer, from a time when the relationship between the two sisters wasn't as strained._

" _Well I'll be damned." Alex breathed, the shock evident in her voice "You and Wren really weren't screwing with me."_

 _Melissa blinked in surprise. She wasn't aware of the fact that Alex knew of Wren._

" _You're acquainted with Wren?" Was the question that Melissa settled for._

 _Alex smiled gently._

" _Funny enough," Alex started, "he's the reason I even_ _ **know**_ _about your side of the family. Helped me to meet Charlotte and everything."_

 _Melissa's heart beat anxiously in her chest at the mention of her former lover's name. The conflicting emotions on her face must've been apparent, as Alex reached over and grasped her hand sympathetically._

" _If I'd known you sooner, I probably would've tried to get the two of you in the same room." Alex said softly, "She showed me a picture of you two, you know?"_

 _Melissa tried not to get her hopes up. Just because the blonde still kept pictures of the two of them didn't mean that she wanted further contact with her._

 _Alex noted Melissa's quietness and playfully nudged her, trying to get her mind off of depressing topics._

" _Enough of that, let's talk about me." Alex's playful conceitedness brought a smile out of Melissa, "Wren's pretty cute, don't you think?"_

 _Melissa snorted, rolling her eyes. She could think of a million reasons why Wren wouldn't be an ideal suitor._

" _Don't even think about it." Melissa smirked, "You wouldn't be the first Hastings girl he went after. He was mine first before Spencer took him from me."_

 _Alex's grin turned to a look of disgust._

" _He gave me his number because I look like_ _ **Spencer**_ _?" Alex scoffed, "I don't even know our sister yet and people are already using me as a way of coping with not being able to get her?"_

 _A genuine laugh left Melissa's lips at Alex's indignant tone. Though she wasn't yet over her own heartbreak, it brought a sense of relief to her that she could connect with someone who wouldn't judge her. Maybe she could finally have a sisterly relationship after all._

 _ **Age 25**_

 _Upon finding out that Kenneth DiLaurentis had been tormenting Spencer and her friends, – and simultaneously manipulating Charlotte to do his bidding – Melissa immediately made her way over to the police station, bringing a fake detective ID that Eric Kahn had made for her once._

' _I think you'd make a sexy detective.' Eric had told her, and Melissa didn't hesitate to turn the player boy down._

 _Slipping into the police station, considering everything that had transpired, should've been a lot harder, but Melissa had to remind herself that this_ _ **was**_ _Rosewood after all._

 _Seeing Charlotte for the first time in three years brought a warm feeling to her chest, and as she sat down in front of her, brown eyes meeting gray-blue, she couldn't help the tears that welled up in her eyes. Not even the detective who entered the room later on to shoo her away could get rid of her._

" _Melissa," Charlotte's voice cracked, bringing Melissa's full attention to her, "you deserve a lot better than –"_

" _Don't you dare." Melissa's tone was firm as she reached over and held Charlotte's hands in her own, "We're going to get through this, you understand me? I don't care if I have to implicate myself –"_

" _No." Charlotte said hastily, her eyes widened in panic, "You're completely innocent in all of this. Don't get dragged into my mess, Melissa. I love you too much to let you do that."_

 _A small smile tugged at Melissa's lips at hearing the passion that the blonde still had for her in her voice._

" _Then I'm not leaving your side."_

 **Present Day – Age 30**

For the past few years, Melissa spent her time balancing her career in London and visiting Charlotte in Welby, until she decided to just move back into her Philadelphia apartment. It was easier than spending so much time caught between two lives. Alex had been supportive as well, and, despite being reluctant to see Melissa go, gave her a few words of wisdom before she left.

" _Don't let your chance with her slip away, Melissa_." Alex had told her, " _She really does love you. Don't let anyone try to make you feel weird about that_."

It was only a matter of time before anyone in her family questioned her intentions with Charlotte. She just didn't quite expect it to be her father.

"Going to visit Charlotte again?" Peter's tone wasn't judgmental, though it was still creepy how the members of Melissa's family managed to still sneak up on one another.

Melissa crossed her arms over her chest, gathering a steely resolve.

"Yes."

There was silence between the two for a while before Peter sighed, walking over to Melissa and placing a hand on her shoulder.

"When were you planning on telling me that you're in love with her?" Once again, Peter's voice was soft, yet Melissa still found herself taken aback by the question. She hadn't felt as if she'd been obvious with the source of her affections.

"When were _you_ planning on telling me that Spencer's only my half-sister?" Melissa countered. It was unfair of her father to expect transparency when he himself wasn't forthcoming, "Did you even know that she has a twin?"

Peter took his hand from her shoulder as if burned, and Melissa reveled in the look of surprise on his face.

"Melissa –"

"I'm gonna be late." That wasn't the entire truth, but Melissa wasn't in the mood to have this conversation.

* * *

"Your family's gonna start getting suspicious if you keep coming here." Charlotte smiled into Melissa's lips as the brunette eagerly kissed her upon arrival at Welby, "If they haven't yet, that is."

Melissa pulled back and shrugged, her grip on Charlotte's waist not loosening in the slightest.

"My father knows."

Charlotte stared up at her in surprise. Melissa placated the anxious thoughts that must have been running through her girlfriend's mind with another sweet kiss before pulling back once more.

"Don't worry about it." Melissa murmured, her eyes closed as she gently rested her forehead against Charlotte's, "I'm _done_ living my life for other people."

"Yeah?" Charlotte's voice was soft, and Melissa took a deep breath at the sound of it.

"Yeah." Melissa pulled back, still close enough that they were breathing the same air, a playful glint in her chocolate orbs, "Now how much do you think we can get away with doing before an orderly comes to check on you?"

Charlotte's loud laughter was silenced by Melissa's mouth as the latter pushed her towards her bed, turning into a content sigh as the brunette hovered over her.

Though she had spent her whole life trying to attain some semblance of perfection, she had finally accepted that life _wasn't_ perfect. It would throw curveballs that you couldn't always be prepared to handle, and people were subject to changing, but in this moment, with Charlotte, she realized one thing…

She'd do everything all over again, - imperfections and all – if it meant that she could have Charlotte with her, always.


	5. Spencer

Spencer Hastings had always tried to be the very best in everything she did. She had an older sister, Melissa, whose shadow she felt she was living in, so it was natural for her to feel a certain competitive streak throughout her life. She couldn't say for certain that after all she'd endured, she didn't _still_ want to be the best, but she could definitely proclaim that it wasn't the end of the world if she wasn't.

 _ **Age 3**_

 _From a young age, Spencer Hastings had always known that she had to be an overachiever. Though her parents, Peter and Veronica, were very loving towards her, it was no secret that they reveled in the accomplishments of her older sister, Melissa. At 10-years-old, Melissa had been in every honors program that her school offered, been the most valuable player on every sports team she tried out for, and was beloved by mostly everyone._

 _At the age of three, the competitive streak hadn't fully consumed Spencer, but she nevertheless felt as if she had something to prove. Granted, it wasn't to an extreme level, but she was concerned with making sure that her big sister – who was, by default, her favorite person in the entire world – was proud of her._

 _It was this mindset that prompted the toddler to make her way to Melissa's room, reaching up to twist the doorknob like she'd seen her sister do so many times and enter the room. Melissa was currently sitting on her bed, books sprawled out in front of her, pencil in hand, and bottom lip between her teeth. It was evident that she was deep in concentration – so deep that she didn't register Spencer's presence until she was attempting to climb atop her bed, favorite book in hand._

" _Be careful Spence." Melissa reached over to lift Spencer onto the bed, noticing that the toddler was having trouble with the height of the bed, "Don't want you to get hurt."_

 _Melissa's eyes flickered down to the book in Spencer's hands – The Very Hungry Caterpillar._

" _Spence, I can't read this with you right now." She gestured to the work she was doing, "I got a lot of homework."_

 _Spencer felt the beginnings of tears welling up in her eyes. She'd already tried to get her parents to read with her, but they were both too busy to indulge her. She couldn't bear the thought of her sister not having time for her too._

 _Melissa, seeing the tears in her sister's eyes, immediately brushed them away, pulling Spencer into a hug._

" _Don't cry Spence." Melissa rocked her back and forth, "Do you wanna stay with me while I finish? I don't mind."_

 _Spencer pulled back and looked between her sister and her book. She'd really wanted to show Melissa her reading skills. Melissa seemed to notice her sister's train of thought as she sighed, pushing her work off to the side of the bed, leaning against her headboard and pulling Spencer into her lap._

" _I guess it's not the_ _ **end**_ _of the world if I don't finish my homework before dinner." Melissa smiled, "Wanna read it to me?"_

 _Spencer gave her sister a teary smile and cleared her throat dramatically, causing her sister to laugh._

" _The Very Hungry Caterpillar." Spencer read aloud proudly._

 _As Spencer read the book to her older sister, completely with charismatic voice changes and all, she felt a great sense of pride. Though she hadn't been able to get her parents to listen to her, she knew Melissa would always be there for her, and that was good enough for now._

 _ **Age 6**_

 _Spencer didn't like to remember being six-years-old. It was the year she started grade school, and as a future academic, she should've been excited. Melissa, her thirteen-year-old sister loved to talk about all the cool things she could do since starting grade school, and Spencer was thrilled to finally be experiencing some of the same things. There was only one problem._

 _Kendra Santoni._

 _Spencer Hastings was six-years-old the first time she met Kendra Santoni, an older girl who was closer to Melissa's age than to her own. The older girl was on the field-hockey team with Melissa, and as such, Spencer had seen her occasionally around school. She was the second-best offensive player on the school's field hockey team – second to Melissa, of course – and it was natural that she wouldn't like Melissa._

 _What perplexed Spencer, however, was the fact that Kendra didn't like_ _ **her**_ _._

 _Spencer had never even spoken to Kendra, so it was definitely a surprise when she found herself pinned to the jungle gym by the older girl._

" _Hey there Little Hastings." Kendra grinned wickedly, the menacing countenance causing Spencer's heart to beat wildly in her chest, "Whatcha got there?"_

 _Throughout the whole ordeal, Spencer had managed to hold onto the paper bag that contained her lunch – a peanut butter sandwich that she had to beg her mom for_ _ **forever**_ _to let her carry. Ever since meeting her neighbor – Alison DiLaurentis – in preschool, and finding out that there were lunch options other than tuna fish sandwiches, she'd asked her mom – who was very strict on providing a healthy diet - to let her have one. She hadn't been successful until today and based on the amused glint in Kendra's eyes, she was about to have that taken away from her._

" _I-it's my lunch." Spencer's voice was meek, a reflection of how scared she was._

 _Kendra tilted her head to the side in mock consideration._

" _I think it'd do better as_ _ **my**_ _lunch, don't you think?" Though Kendra had phrased it as a question, it was clear that she wasn't asking._

 _Spencer attempted to stand up straighter, wincing when she found that Kendra was too strong for her._

" _My mommy packed that lunch for me, not you." Spencer said boldly, sounding braver than she actually was._

" _My mommy packed that lunch for me, not you." Kendra mocked, her tone high pitched in an almost cartoonish manner._

 _Without waiting for Spencer to respond, Kendra snatched the bag out of her hands, opening it as Spencer tried desperately to retrieve it from her._

" _Give that back!" Came the voice of one of Spencer's friends, Hanna Marin. The blonde girl was also someone Spencer had met in preschool, and Spencer was happier than ever to see her._

 _Kendra laughed._

" _Who's gonna make me, blondie?" She asked, emphasizing her question with a slight shove. Though the shove wasn't very hard, Hanna was a small girl, and as a result, she fell._

 _Spencer immediately rushed over to her friend, helping her up as Kendra walked away, still laughing to herself._

" _Are you okay?"_

 _Hanna sniffed, on the verge of tears as she hugged Spencer tightly._

" _I'm sorry I couldn't get your lunch back." Hanna murmured tearfully as she pulled back._

 _Spencer shook her head._

" _It doesn't matter as long as you're okay."_

* * *

 _That was the first time that Kendra Santoni had ever bothered her, but it certainly wasn't the last. Her attacks had gotten more physical, from shoving Spencer against the school fences, to whipping the back of her neck with a jump rope. The last one stung the most, and it was incidentally the one that caught Melissa's attention._

 _By the time Spencer was six, she and Melissa had devised a routine for finishing homework. As soon as the two would get home, they'd convene in Melissa's room to get the work done in silence, with Spencer occasionally asking Melissa for guidance._

 _On one such day, as the girls were in Melissa's room, Spencer found her sister staring at her strangely._

" _What's wrong, Lissa?" Spencer asked curiously, her head tilted to the side._

 _Melissa frowned._

" _I should be asking you the same thing." She murmured as she brushed a hand across the back of Spencer's neck, drawing it back swiftly as Spencer recoiled, "What happened to your neck?"_

 _Spencer froze. She didn't want to tell her sister about her run-ins with Kendra. She was afraid that if she did, Kendra would start picking on Melissa too._

" _N-nothing." Spencer said quietly, lifting one of her baggie books up to cover her face, "Can we get back to work please?"_

 _She startled when Melissa gently took the book out of her hands, dark brown eyes staring at her in concern._

" _Not until you tell me what happened to your neck."_

" _It's nothing, Melissa!" Spencer cried out in desperation, "Kendra didn't do anything to me, so just leave it alone!"_

 _Spencer didn't realize her mistake until Melissa's eyes widened. She'd said her name by accident._

" _Santoni did this to you?" Melissa's voice was low, and Spencer was almost scared by the intense look that had entered the older girl's eyes._

 _Spencer only nodded._

 _She didn't expected Melissa to get off of the bed and move towards the door, opening it faster than Spencer could think possible._

" _Where're you going?"_

" _To tell mom and dad." Melissa said matter-of-factly, as if she couldn't understand why Spencer was confused, "They're lawyers. They'll handle this."_

" _No!" Spencer shrieked, slamming the door shut quickly, causing Melissa to stare at her as if she had two heads, "You can't!"_

" _Why not?"_

" _That'll only make it worse."_

" _How can it possibly make it worse?"_

" _Kendra said she'd hurt you if I told anyone."_

 _There was a silence between the two sisters until Melissa broke it, laughing._

" _Why're you laughing?" Spencer's tone was hurt. Here she was, voicing her concerns about her sister, and the latter was laughing in her face._

 _Melissa, sensing Spencer's indignation, bit her lip and smiled sheepishly._

" _Sorry." She murmured, "But Santoni can't hurt me."_

" _How come?"_

 _Before Melissa could answer, their mother, Veronica entered the room, a worried look on her face._

" _I heard a door slam." She explained, "Is everything alright?"_

 _Melissa gave Spencer's shoulder a squeeze before turning to their mother with a charming smile._

" _I scared Spencer and she closed the door in a hurry." Melissa said smoothly, "Sorry mom."_

 _Veronica looked between the two of them before sighing._

" _Just be careful." She advised before shutting the door once more._

 _Spencer's brows furrowed in confusion._

" _You lied to help me." She said bluntly, "Why?"_

 _Melissa rolled her eyes._

" _I'm your older sister." She said briefly, "I'll always protect you."_

* * *

 _Spencer soon found that Melissa was – in fact – not lying when she vowed to always protect her. The next day at school, Kendra, as expected, started to pick on Spencer, but the latter's older sister stayed true to her word and handled it. Of course, her way of handling it consisted of beating Kendra up, but Spencer didn't mind. Kendra had the nerve to not only bully her, but shove Melissa too._

 _She deserved what she got._

 _Spencer could vaguely make out Hanna's thumbs up from the other side of the playground as Melissa finished with Kendra. Her sister turned to her and smiled warmly._

" _Ready to go home?"_

 _Spencer nodded eagerly and held her sister's hand tightly. Maybe she wasn't the best at defending herself, but she would learn in time. She was just grateful to have an older sister who cared for her so much._

 _ **Age 13**_

 _Spencer was thirteen the first time she learned that she wouldn't be the best in all things. She vividly remembered a sleepover she'd had with Alison once, just the two of them. Her other friends – Emily, Aria, and Hanna – had all given excuses as to why they couldn't make the sleepover, but she knew the truth._

 _None of them want to spend excessive time with Alison._

 _Maybe that wasn't entirely true. It wasn't that the other girls didn't_ _ **like**_ _Ali – Spencer was fairly certain that Emily liked her as more than friends – but there was only so much cruelty they could take. Alison had a nasty habit of saying just the right things to bring down a person's mood, and the only reason that Spencer was able to take it was because she'd spent her whole life engaging in debate practice with her family._

" _It's so lame that the other girls couldn't make it." Alison was lounging casually on her bed as Spencer gathered the pillows and blankets, "Don't you think, Spence?"_

 _Spencer knew that Alison was testing her. She knew that the other girl wanted her to say something bad about their friends, so she could twist her words later on._

 _Spencer wouldn't give her the satisfaction._

" _I think they all had legit reasons as to why they couldn't come tonight."_

 _Alison rolled her eyes._

" _You're such a bore, Spence." She laughed, "Lighten up._

 _There was a glint in Alison's eyes that Spencer didn't like._

" _Friends share secrets." Alison said sagely, leaning closer to Spencer, who'd just sat down next to her on the bed, "It's what keeps them close."_

 _Spencer let out a deep sigh and nodded. Normally, she would disagree with Alison, but she was just too tired to start yet another of their infamous arguments._

" _Now tell me, Spence." Alison grinned, "Have your eye on any boys?"_

 _Spencer bit her lip and upon realizing what she was doing, promptly released said lip. Her thoughts immediately traveled to Toby Cavanaugh, a boy who was a year older than both her and Alison. He was the tall, brooding type, with amazing brown curls and ocean blue eyes._

 _Eyes that 12-year-old Spencer could get lost in easily._

" _Hello, Earth to Spencer." Alison snapped her fingers impatiently in front of Spencer, bringing the brunette's attention to her once more, "I asked you a –"_

" _Toby Cavanaugh." Spencer said abruptly, before she could lose her nerve, "I think he's pretty cute."_

 _Of all the reactions that Spencer expected from Alison, it certainly wasn't a laugh. She gave the blonde a questioning glance, which gradually curbed her initial reaction._

" _Pick someone new, Spence." Alison placed what she must've thought was a comforting hand on Spencer's shoulder, "He's more into me than he could ever be into you."_

 _Alison paused, and the hesitation was enough to bring Spencer's thoughts into overdrive. What did Alison have that she didn't?_

" _I was gonna tell you earlier, but he and I almost kissed today." Alison continued before rolling her eyes in disgust, "But his loon of a mother interrupted us. I mean, how rude could she get?"_

 _Spencer didn't answer, instead trying to blink the tears that Alison's careless comments had caused out of her eyes. She didn't want Alison to see her as weak._

 _A Hastings is never weak._

" _Spence?" Alison's tone was slightly softer, the hand on her shoulder ever so slightly calmer, "You okay?"_

 _Spencer knew this was as close to an apology that she would get from Alison, so she put on a brave face and nodded, giving Alison a curt nod._

" _Let's just go to sleep now." Spencer faked a yawn, "I'm kinda tired now."_

 _Before Alison could reply, Spencer rolled over onto her side, clutching the pillow tightly in an effort to calm her emotions, trying in vain to stop the tears from coming._

 _Eventually, as she slowly drifted off into a restless slumber, she wondered why she wasn't good enough for Toby Cavanaugh._

 _ **Age 15**_

 _Most of the people close to Spencer thought that she subconsciously blocked her fifteenth year from memory. That was the year that she truly started abusing prescription drugs as a result of the pressures that came with being a Hastings, and it wouldn't be uncommon if she didn't remember much about the year._

 _Spencer remembered every little detail._

 _Prescription drugs affected people in a myriad of ways, but Spencer liked to compare it to the alcohol that her parents imagined she'd never touched. It lowered her inhibitions, but not to the point where she couldn't remember anything. The problem was that she wasn't in control._

 _If she had to pick out two details that she remembered about her fifteenth year, she would narrow it down to two incidences – an argument with Melissa, and the night Alison disappeared._

 _Melissa_

 _Looking back, Spencer couldn't pinpoint what exactly Melissa had done to warrant her rage, but it probably had something to do with her graduating from college. Getting into the University of Pennsylvania was a prestigious honor, and to be graduating magna cum laude was something even more to boast about. Granted, Melissa was under the impression that she was only_ _ **helping**_ _Spencer by sharing her educational experiences, but it was hard to accept that when their parents, Peter and Veronica, set up a competitive environment between the sisters._

 _It didn't help that Melissa's graduation fell on the same day as Spencer's freshman award ceremony._

" _I'm sorry, Spencer." She could recall Peter telling her, just vaguely remembering Melissa's eyes widening in shock, "But your sister is graduating from_ _ **college**_ _. That only happens once. There'll be other awards ceremonies."_

" _Dad, it's fine." Melissa tried to intervene, but it was hard for Spencer to realize that her sister was trying to help her over the incessant imagined buzzing in her ears, "You don't have to come. Spencer worked really hard –"_

 _With that, Spencer turned on her heel and rushed upstairs into her room, making sure to slam the door as hard as she could, tears burning in her eyes. She didn't want to hear her father inevitably tell Melissa that she was more important yet again. Though he'd never explicitly said the words, Spencer understood her father well enough to know where his head was at._

 _She couldn't recall if it was Adderall she had taken, or Ritalin, but she knew that she took way more than was actually recommended. Probably not enough to overdose, but enough to definitely make her less in control of her emotions._

 _She didn't remember how she ended up in Melissa's room, or how Melissa's clothes and some of her jewelry ended up destroyed, but she_ _ **did**_ _remember the betrayed look on Melissa's face as she came upstairs to check on her, just as she had started kicking her bed in frustration._

" _Spencer." Melissa's tone was angry as she lifted one of her broken necklaces from the ground. Spencer remembered Melissa telling her that she'd gotten the necklace from one of her college friends – Charlene? Charmaine? Spencer didn't care much for the name at the time, "Why would you –"_

 _Melissa paused, stepping closer to Spencer as the younger Hastings took a step back._

" _You're abusing your pills again, aren't you?"_

 _Spencer snarled at her, and the almost inhumane noise startled the both of them._

" _You're the reason for everything wrong in my life." Spencer growled, ripping the necklace out of her sister's hand and throwing it across the room, ignoring the angry and hurt flash that briefly appeared in her sister's eyes, "You're_ _ **so**_ _perfect, and you can't even realize that_ _ **you're**_ _the reason I have to take these pills in the first place!"_

" _Spencer –"_

" _No Melissa, don't." Spencer shook her head, shoving past her sister as she made her way towards her own room, "Don't even bother."_

 _Spencer couldn't remember the rest of the day, and as she woke up with a splitting migraine and grogginess, the events of the previous day came rushing back to her. A distinct feeling of guilt engulfed her, and though she was still bitter, she figured that she owed her sister some form of apology._

 _What she didn't expect to see was her mother sitting in Melissa's room, on the bed. The room, which had been completely trashed the night prior, was pristine. All of the discarded items that had littered Melissa's bedroom floor were gone, as if Spencer had never even been inside._

 _Even as she made her way in, she noticed that her mother wouldn't look her in the eyes. Her eyes were bloodshot, and Spencer became alarmed, rushing over to her mother's side._

" _Mom, what's wrong?"_

 _Her mother put on a forced smile and turned to Spencer, the smile wavering slightly as she made eye contact._

" _Your sister went back to Philly last night." Her mother said slowly, as if Spencer were a ticking time bomb, and Spencer supposed that she kind of was, "She took back her graduation tickets, so I can safely assume that we've been disinvited to her graduation."_

 _Her mother paused, and Spencer's guilt only increased._

" _Guess we'll be able to make your awards ceremony after all."_

 _Her mother left her alone in Melissa's room, and Spencer bit her lip anxiously. All she had wanted was for her parents to show her some attention, and now Melissa went and selflessly made_ _ **sure**_ _that they'd have time for her._

 _Spencer knew she should've felt elated, but she couldn't shake the gnawing feeling of despair out of her chest, so she settled for calling Melissa. The phone rang once before her sister answered._

" _Spencer?"_

" _Melissa, I'm sorry." Was all Spencer could manage to say. What else_ _ **could**_ _she say?_

 _She could hear her sister sigh on the other side of the phone._

" _The past can't be rewritten." Melissa's tone was dull, and so out of character that it broke Spencer's heart, "You wanted mom and dad to be there for you, and now they are. What more do you want?"_

 _The end of her sister's statement was harsh, and Spencer felt a flare of anger rise within her._

" _What I_ _ **want**_ _is for you to be happy for me for once in your life." Spencer hissed out before she could stop herself._

 _Spencer registered the sharp intake of breath that came next, but wasn't sure if it came from her or Melissa._

" _Goodbye Spencer."_

" _Wait, Melissa –" But the clicking sound from the other end of the line alerted Spencer to the fact that she had just been hung up on._

 _There was a part of Spencer that felt victorious – she had_ _ **finally**_ _managed to one-up Melissa after all – but the larger part of her, the one not consumed by anger and jealousy, won out, making her wonder why she couldn't do anything right._

 _Alison_

 _There was much about the fateful sleepover with Alison that Spencer couldn't remember. Alison had managed to drug not only her, but their other friends as well, and as Spencer woke up later that night, she remembered feeling an overwhelming sense of anger._

 _Unfortunately, that summer, she had figured out a rather unhealthy manner of coping with said anger – prescription pills._

 _When she awoke to find Alison missing and the rest of their friends sleeping, she hadn't hesitated to take a handful of Adderall. Before the effects could fully settle in, Spencer made her way out of her barn._

 _It wasn't very long before Spencer found Alison, not too far from the area between their two homes. She registered that Alison was staring at her funnily, and immediately didn't like it._

" _Spence, you're not well." Alison's tone was uncharacteristically quiet, and it irritated Spencer to no end, "You should get some sleep."_

 _Spencer didn't reply, taking note of a shovel that laid not too far from her before turning to look at Alison again. It appeared that Alison knew where her gaze had been, and took a hesitant step backwards._

" _Spencer –"_

 _Alison cut herself off as Spencer lifted up the shovel, raising it over her head menacingly._

 _There was very little she could remember about what happened afterwards, but the scream she swore she heard haunted her._

 _When Alison had been reported missing a few days later, with her parents appearing on the news, desperate for any information that could lead to the reappearance of their only daughter, Spencer felt the sickening knot of guilt rolling in her stomach. She cursed herself for not being able to remember much from that night, cursed herself for abusing her pills yet again._

 _But most of all, she cursed her very existence, because she was about 99% sure that she had struck Alison DiLaurentis that night. She wasn't sure what had happened to the body, but she wasn't about to mention anything that happened that night to anyone – not her friends, and_ _ **definitely**_ _not her family._

 _ **Age 16**_

 _By the age of 16, Spencer Hastings felt as if she was finally in a good place. Her addiction to prescription pills had died down, she had an internship at the mayor's office, and she was top of her class. Her family was proud of her, and her relationship with Melissa wasn't as rocky as it usually was. Everything was going great for her, but as her favorite saying went:_

 _Hope breeds eternal misery._

 _She had finally convinced her parents to let her move into the barn, and had spent all summer renovating and decorating. She had poured her heart and soul into making the barn feel comfortable, and all it took was Melissa bringing her new boyfriend home to destroy all of that._

" _Wren and I are a couple, Spence." Melissa had told her, beaming as she looped her arm around that of her British beau, "We need some space, and mom and dad said we could use it. It'll be temporary."_

 _Though the word temporary had been used, all Spencer could think about was the fact that her parents had taken Melissa's side yet again. It felt as if all they did was pit the two sisters against each other, and the pressure was something Spencer thought would get better with age._

 _She was wrong._

 _Her dismay must've been plain on her face, for Melissa made an attempt to look sympathetic, which, to Spencer, just looked plain condescending._

" _I thought you'd be happy for me." Melissa frowned._

 _Spencer scoffed in disbelief. Really?_

" _Well you know what they say about hope." Spencer said lowly, sparing a swift glance at Wren, who looked like a deer caught in headlights, "It breeds eternal misery."_

 _With that, Spencer stormed into the house, taking deep breaths to calm herself. How_ _ **dare**_ _Melissa think that she could come home with a boyfriend and automatically be given everything Spencer had worked for that summer. Who did she think she was?_

 _A text alert brought Spencer out of her bitter thoughts and as she took her phone out of her pocket, she blinked in confusion at the message:_

 _ **Poor Spencer. Always wants Melissa's boyfriends. But remember, if you kiss I tell.**_

 _ **-A**_

 _The only person Spencer could think of who would know of Spencer's tendency to gravitate towards Melissa's boyfriends was Alison, and yet, Alison was dead. Granted, Melissa's boyfriends always made the first move, but Spencer knew that due to the tumultuous relationship that she and Melissa had, none of that would matter. It would still be considered an act of betrayal. With a heaving sigh, Spencer resolved to keep her distance from Wren. Regardless of what this mysterious person thought they knew, she wouldn't let them get the best of her._

* * *

 _In hindsight, letting Wren into her bedroom was a really, really bad idea. Though their initial encounter was innocent, she knew as soon as he entered her room that there was a slight spark between the two. She didn't know whether or not she had made the first move, or if Wren had, but as Wren's soft lips met hers, she couldn't bring herself to care. His arms wrapped around her waist tightly, hers draped lazily over his neck. The suave cologne that Melissa bought for him wafted into her nostrils and…_

 _ **Melissa**_ _._

 _At the thought of her older sister, Spencer pushed Wren away from her, immense guilt settling in her stomach. Here she was, kissing yet another one of Melissa's boyfriends, and proving that "A" text right. At the stunned look on Wren's face, it appeared that he was feeling bad about it too._

 _The sound of soft, hurried footsteps caught Spencer's attention, and she bit her lip at the sinking feeling she got. She didn't want to believe it, but she was fairly certain that Melissa had witnessed the intimate moment that she and Wren had shared._

" _You need to leave." Spencer couldn't even look Wren in the eyes. Not after what had happened between the two of them._

 _The slight breeze that she felt told Spencer that Wren had left. She sat down on her bed and placed her head in her hands, cursing herself for screwing up yet again._

 _By morning, Wren and his belongings were gone, and Melissa was back to giving her dirty looks. She knew she deserved it, but she couldn't help but feel distraught about all that had transpired._

* * *

 _By the time Spencer had started dating Alex Santiago, she had all but forgotten about the Wren fiasco. This "A" person had continued sending her text messages trying to get her to do their bidding – and had extended the messages to her former friends: Aria Montgomery, Hanna Marin, and Emily Fields – but as Spencer took her new boyfriend to the dance, she resolved to forget about all the things that she had done to warrant blackmailing…especially stealing Melissa's former Russian History paper._

 _Melissa, as a junior at Rosewood High seven years ago, had written a brilliant Russian History paper, one which had awarded the older brunette an A for its detail and style. Since it had been so long ago, and Spencer was being plagued by an unknown assailant, she didn't think too much about changing the name on Melissa's paper and turning it in as her own. She hadn't expected that her essay would be turned into a competition that would win her the Golden Orchid, an award that Melissa herself had just barely missed out on. She hadn't expected Melissa to actually read the paper._

" _Wow, Spencer." Melissa gave Spencer a thin-lipped smile, probably a show for their parents, who were in the same room, "I didn't think you had it in you."_

 _Her parents were none the wiser, but Spencer knew exactly what Melissa was angling at._

 _ **She knew**_ _._

" _Of course she does." Her father Peter gave her a warm pat on the back, "She's a Hastings, Melissa. Achieving is in her blood."_

 _Later that week, when Melissa had chased Alex off from the dance in revenge, Spencer felt a moment of irritation, before it was quelled down by her familiar feeling of guilt. She couldn't even blame Melissa. Had she been in the situation, she probably would've done a lot worse._

* * *

 _Figuring out that Mona was the first "A" behind her suffering was only half a shock for Spencer. Despite the veneer of popularity and general charisma that Mona exuded after Alison's disappearance, she'd had a feeling that the shorter brunette had never quite forgiven her and her friends for standing idly while Alison bullied her._

 _Still, as Spencer accidentally pushed her off of a cliff following a brief scuffle, Spencer couldn't help but feel bad for the girl, feel as if she should have done more to help her in the past._

 _However, there was nothing that could be done to change the past, and Spencer felt the weight lift off of her chest at the thought of finally being rid of a tormentor. Now, she could finally focus on the things that mattered – getting stellar grades to gain admissions to her family's alma mater – UPenn – strengthening her friendships, and being a better sister to Melissa._

 _All because A was gone._

 _ **Age 17**_

 _Spencer was 17 when she realized that "A" wouldn't just disappear as simply as it appeared. After that first text from the second "A" –_ _ **Mona played with dolls, I play with body parts**_ _– Spencer knew that her high school career was just not destined to be as content as television shows made it seem._

 _At 17, she had been in a relationship with Toby Cavanaugh – Rosewood's outcast – for just about a year. Though the two had gotten off to a rocky start, their relationship became more genuine than Spencer had ever thought possible. He wasn't someone who had been formerly interested in Melissa – which made him a better candidate than either Ian or Wren – and he was the exact opposite of the type of person her father expected her to bring home._

 _Which made him even more perfect._

 _However, it wasn't until she was 17 that she realized that Toby had been on the "A-Team," working for Mona. The signs had all been there, but Spencer failed to see any of them. Hence, when the revelation had finally been made, she had been devastated._

 _That didn't mean that she didn't mourn the loss of Toby, when she was certain that he'd died._

 _She had seen his body in the woods, with his infamous_ _ **901 Free at Last**_ _tattoos, and immediately broke down. The next thing she recalled was being in a room at Radley, her older sister Melissa standing a few feet away from her._

" _I feel responsible for you, Spencer." Melissa had said gently, as if afraid that Spencer would break at the slightest shift in tone. It was messed up how the only time they didn't argue was when one or both of them was in a desolate place, with nothing left to lose._

 _When she had been offered a position on the "A-Team" for the second time within a year, Spencer took it. She knew her friends would probably hate her, but she really had nothing left to lose. Toby was dead, the tormenting hadn't stopped, and Spencer was slowly losing her mind._

 _This way, if she was on the "A-Team," maybe she'd be able to unmask her tormentor once and for all, giving her a renewed sense of purpose._

* * *

 _Toby was alive. That was a given fact, if the intimate night they had shared was any indicator. Her relief was short-lived, however, as she quickly realized that Mona was not, in fact, in control of the "A-Team" as she initially thought. It hadn't taken her friends very long to realize that she was the one who had kidnapped Ezra's "son," Malcolm, or that she was masquerading as part of the "A-Team," but they had bigger fish to fry._

 _Maybe "fry" wasn't such a good word choice, as by the time Spencer was 17, she realized that the possibility of burning alive was very real. Everything that was_ _ **supposed**_ _to happen at the lodge failed, and Spencer cursed herself for not seeing any of this coming, but what scared her the most was the words that Mona had uttered in sheer desperation:_

" _I never even got to meet her!"_

 _As Mona was asked who the mysterious "her" was referring to, Spencer got the sinking feeling that there was an even bigger "A" for her to worry about instead of Mona._

* * *

 _Long story short, Spencer and her friends, and even Mona, survived the lodge fire. How? The answer was simple._

 _Despite all logic, and much to her immense relief, Alison DiLaurentis was alive._

 _ **Age 18**_

 _Spencer didn't like to recall the dollhouse incident. Being held captive in a space that replicated one's safe haven was not only creepy, but incredibly intrusive, and for the sake of her sanity and sobriety from prescription pills, she didn't like to dwell on it too much. It brought her back to a time when she felt helpless, as if she couldn't do anything right, and she had made too much progress in the past few years to ever go back down that dark road._

 _The night she woke up in the dollhouse covered in blood that wasn't her own was one that would haunt her forever._

 _What she_ _ **did**_ _want to recall about her eighteenth year was that it was the year when she realized her whole concept of family had been a lie; and to think she thought her family was complicated when she found out that Jason was her half-brother._

 _She found out from Melissa, which she supposed didn't really surprise her as much as it would've two years ago. After finding out about what her older sister had done to protect her from the ramifications of what she dubbed the "Bethany Young incident," she had gained her wholehearted trust._

 _Still, when she found her sister perched nonchalantly on her bed the morning she was set to leave for Georgetown (it's funny, she didn't really mind the idea of not going to UPenn, considering all that had happened), saying she was surprised would be the understatement of the decade._

" _Melissa." Spencer said slowly, "Not that I'm not happy to see you, but –"_

" _We need to talk," Melissa's tone was blunt, contrary to her relaxed body posture, "and I think you should sit down for this."_

 _Spencer heeded her sister's advice and sat down next to her on the bed. In the past, all the times they'd had serious conversations had ended in them not speaking for a prolonged period of time, and with the "A" drama behind her, Spencer really wasn't looking forward to losing her big sister again._

 _As Spencer sat down, Melissa sighed._

" _Remember when we agreed years ago that we'd have no more secrets?" Melissa asked, her serious tone making Spencer cautious._

" _I was the one who suggested it, so yes, Melissa, I remember."_

 _Melissa rolled her eyes at Spencer's sarcastic tone._

" _Well, this one has more to do with you than it does with me, so here goes." Melissa continued, reaching over to hold Spencer's hand, "Remember when we would fight when we were younger, and I'd always joke around that you're not really a Hastings?"_

 _Spencer would've laughed if not for her sister's severe countenance. Her heart skipped a beat and she just stared at Melissa. She couldn't be serious._

" _Well, as you know, dad had an affair with Mrs. D." Melissa stated matter-of-factly, and only her gentle brushes against Spencer's hand was keeping the younger brunette from jumping to conclusions before all the facts were laid on the table, "But what you_ _ **don't**_ _know it that Mrs. D had a twin sister, Mary Drake. It's cliché, but our father mistook Mary for Mrs. D one night, and got her pregnant."_

 _Spencer bit her lip, subconsciously holding onto Melissa's hand tighter._

" _Why haven't I ever seen this twin?" Spencer asked quietly._

" _She was kept in Radley." Melissa explained, eyes narrowed as she took note of Spencer's stiff body language, "She was let out periodically, and I guess on one of those days, she met dad and had a one-night stand with him."_

 _The air was thick with tension, silence dawning upon the two sisters._

" _Why're you telling me this, Melissa?"_

 _Melissa exhaled deeply._

" _Mary got pregnant with twins, Spencer." Melissa pursed her lips, the only sign that she was getting nervous, "One of the twins was sent to London, sold for Mary's ticket out of Radley –"_

" _And the other?" Spencer cut off Melissa abruptly._

 _The sympathetic look Melissa was giving her was all the answer she needed, yet Melissa gave her the answer anyways._

" _The other twin is you, Spence."_

 _Throughout high school, Spencer was never able to get away from her problems, no matter how personal they were. Even if her friends or family didn't call her out on it, "A" was always guaranteed to._

 _That was the good thing about going to college, "A" free – she could avoid the truth for as long as she needed to._

 _ **Age 20**_

 _By 20, Spencer had thought that she had left all the drama behind in her high school days. There was no more "A" to deal with. Her relationship with Melissa was better than it ever had been, and she had finally come to terms with having a twin and a mother that she never knew existed. Though she hadn't been ready to meet her long-lost family members, Spencer was at a point in her life where she could accept the mere idea without feeling an overwhelming sense of bitterness towards her father for his infidelities. Everything was going perfectly for her._

 _That is, until the day she thought she was pregnant._

 _It wasn't uncommon for women to have variance in their menstrual cycles, but by the third week of her cycle being off schedule, she began to worry. Rather than dealing with the worry by herself, she had called her boyfriend, Toby, who upon hearing the news, rushed to her dorm at Georgetown as soon as he could._

 _The silence that ensues while waiting for the results of a pregnancy test can be unnerving, and it was no different for Spencer and Toby. Both of their eyes were raw and red from crying, but neither of them made any move to be closer to one another – Spencer sitting on her bed and Toby at her computer desk chair._

" _I thought we were…careful." Toby's voice startled Spencer out of her own thoughts, and though his words weren't an accusation, Spencer, in her emotional state, took it as one._

 _She refrained from saying anything that would be too hurtful, and instead replied with what she thought would be a practical answer._

" _I can't do this now. A baby's not in my plans right now, Toby."_

 _Spencer couldn't for the life of her understand why Toby looked so hurt, but before she could question him on it, he started talking._

" _And what if you're pregnant Spence?" Toby asked quietly, "We could make it work –"_

 _A bitter snort left Spencer's lips, and they both cringed at the sound of it._

" _And what? You'll move into my dorm room?" Spencer shook her head, "None of this is practical Toby. I'm still a sophomore, and you're –"_

 _Spencer hesitated, and a flash of anger entered Toby's eyes._

" _Just a police officer, right?" Toby spat, "God forbid a Hastings have a child with my inferior genes."_

" _I never said that Toby!" Spencer cried out, reaching for his hands before stopping herself, folding them in her lap instead, "Don't put words in my mouth. But we both know that your job isn't enough to sustain three of us."_

 _Toby looked away from Spencer for a moment, and an unsettling knot found its way into her stomach. She opened her mouth to say something,_ _ **anything**_ _that would make the situation any better, but Toby beat her to the punch._

" _Well, if that's how you really feel, I guess we're more different than we thought."_

 _Toby hesitated._

" _Maybe this –_ _ **us**_ _– isn't working anymore."_

 _Before Spencer could respond, her phone alarm went off, telling her that the waiting period for the pregnancy test was over. She looked over at Toby, who wouldn't meet her eyes, before sighing to herself, going back into the bathroom to retrieve the test._

 _She didn't end up being pregnant, but the rupture had always been formed in her relationship with Toby._

* * *

 _Two months later, closer to her finals, Spencer made an impromptu trip to London to visit Melissa. She didn't tell the older woman that she was coming – half out of wanting to surprise her, and half out of not wanting her to worry about her. She knew that if she told Melissa she was coming, she would immediately have a million questions for her, all out of express concern, but right now, Spencer didn't care about any of that. She needed her older sister._

 _As she exited a taxi in front of Melissa's apartment building, Spencer took a deep breath. She knew her sister wouldn't turn her away, especially after having crossed a whole ocean to get to her – but for some reason, she felt as if something monumental was about to happen._

 _She rang her sister's doorbell and waited. She faintly heard a British accent telling her to wait just a minute before the door swung open. Spencer's mouth dropped open._

" _If you're here for Melissa, she's in the –" A woman around Spencer's age – scratch that,_ _ **exactly**_ _Spencer's age – began before stopping, her eyes wide as she continued, "You must be Spencer."_

 _Spencer could only nod dumbly. After all, it's not every day that you meet your long-lost twin._

* * *

" _I'd offer you a spot of tea, but apparently it's a Hastings thing to have diabetes-inducing coffee." Alex shrugged._

 _Spencer snorted._

" _There's nothing wrong with my preferences." Spencer said, her tone mockingly indignant, "I'll have you know that all my friends_ _ **love**_ _my coffee."_

 _Spencer internally cringed, remembering all the times her friends had told her about her coffee being too much for them to handle._

" _Well, Melissa likes my coffee."_

 _Alex hummed in response, taking a sip of her own drink._

" _So what brings you to London?" Alex asked, "Melissa didn't mention you were coming."_

" _I didn't tell her." Spencer admitted, "I went through a rough time with my boyfriend –_ _ **ex-boyfriend**_ _– and I just needed a sister, you know?"_

 _Alex waited for her to continue._

" _In hindsight, I could've called my friends, and they would've been understanding." Spencer continued, "I just felt like I needed that familial presence. You know what that's like?"_

 _At the look that Alex gave her, Spencer immediately regretted her words._

" _Oh my God. Alex, I'm so –"_

" _Our mother sold me for a ticket out of Radley, remember?" Alex's tone was just slightly bitter before returning to neutral, "You would think I'd know what it's like to crave family."_

 _There was a silence between the two for a few moments, but to Spencer's relief, it wasn't a tension filled one._

" _You know, that's actually how I connected with Charlotte too." Alex spoke up, lifting her teacup to gesture, "All she'd ever wanted was her family, so it was easy to bond with her. She was like that older sibling I never knew I needed."_

 _Spencer kept quiet. She hadn't been aware of the fact that Alex had met Charlotte._

" _You know, I actually wanted to meet you before now." Alex said wryly, "But Charlotte said that Rosewood was too dangerous at the time, and Melissa said you needed time to process everything that had happened."_

 _Alex chuckled._

" _You know, those two have the greatest love story I've ever seen." Alex stood up, taking both hers and Spencer's now empty cups and bringing it over to the sink before sitting across from Spencer once more, "But they're both_ _ **so**_ _stubborn. They're like the parts of a book. Same concept, but they're never on the same page."_

 _Spencer blinked in shock._ _ **Charlotte and Melissa?**_ _Alex took note of the shocked look on Spencer's face and sighed._

" _You didn't know about the two of them, did you?" She frowned, "Melissa'll kill me."_

 _Spencer couldn't tell if Alex was seriously concerned or not, but the playful glint in her eyes made Spencer grin. She didn't know why, but she felt a deep connection with the twin she'd just met._

" _Kill_ _ **you**_ _?" Spencer scoffed, "Has she told you about the time I put frosting in her hair when we were kids? I swear steam left her ears! Not even kidding."_

 _As Alex laughed, Spencer was compelled to join her. Relating to Alex was a lot more natural than she thought it would be, and when Melissa came out of the shower a few minutes later, towel in her hair, the oldest Hastings daughter raised an eyebrow._

" _I shouldn't even be surprised that you came here and didn't tell me you were coming." Melissa rolled her eyes, "What're you two snickering about?"_

 _Spencer shared a glance with her twin and shrugged._

" _Nothing." The twins echoed each other._

 _The scowl on Melissa's face was half annoyed, and half mocking._

" _Great." She threw her hands up into the air, "There's two of you now."_

 _She made to retreat to the bathroom when Spencer's voice stopped her._

" _Don't think we're not gonna talk about your relationship with Charlotte."_

 _Melissa spun around and fixed Alex with a hard stare, one that would've put slight unease in Spencer's stomach had it been directed at her. Her twin only grinned back._

" _Unbelievable." Melissa grumbled to herself as she left the room._

 _Though Spencer had originally come to London seeking solace over her breakup with Toby, and the emotional experience of a pregnancy scare, she hadn't expected to feel so liberated. She regretted not agreeing to meet Alex sooner, but wouldn't waste any time dwelling on the past._

* * *

 _Spencer stared hard at the address her mother had given her two years ago when she had finally admitted that her father, Peter, not only had an affair with Jessica DiLaurentis, but with her twin Mary Drake as well, resulting in Spencer's birth. Learning that Mary was her biological mother was hard to come to terms with, and though Veronica had been gracious enough to give her an address to find Mary at, she hadn't been ready at the time to pursue that lead. After meeting Alex, however, Spencer knew that it was time._

 _She deftly read the sign that announced the name of the resort where her birth mother worked and lived – The Lost Woods. It wasn't exactly in the best shape, but it wasn't dilapidated either._

 _As she moved to the front door of the resort, she noticed that it was locked, though she could still vaguely make out the fact that a light was on. Despite this, she knocked strongly on the door. Within seconds, she got an answer._

" _I'm sorry, but we're clo –" A middle aged woman with raven hair and cyan eyes answered the door, and Spencer did a double take. She knew that Mrs. DiLaurentis' twin was her mother, but seeing a woman who looked so much like a person she knew to be dead was still a culture shock, "Spencer?"_

 _Mary's voice trembled, and it didn't escape Spencer's notice._

" _How'd you know it was me?" Spencer wasn't expecting the crack in her own voice, and bit her lip to quell the tears that she hadn't given permission to enter her eyes._

 _Mary gave her a watery smile._

" _A mother always knows her own daughter."_

 **Current Day – Age 23**

Spencer was 23 when she finally became content with her life. No longer was she trying to live up to anyone's expectations of her, and by this point, she had met all the long-lost members of her family. Her relationship with both of her sisters, much to her great relief, was stronger than ever.

"I still can't believe you run a horse ranch." Spencer shook her head playfully at Melissa, grinning as Alex smirked in agreeance, "What happened to your business degree from the fancy Wharton School of Business?"

Melissa rolled her eyes, smoothly brushing one of her horses' – Draco's – fur gently.

"Owning a horse ranch _is_ a business." Melissa insisted, handing the brush over to Alex, "After all that's happened, I figured I should do something that _I_ like doing for once. Something I'm passionate about."

Spencer took a moment to consider her sister's words. She could definitely understand where her sister was coming from. The torment that had plagued her teenage years was long since over, but Spencer was still _just_ getting used to living life for herself and not others.

"I'll bet she gets a real rise out of the whole thing." Alex said cheekily, bumping Melissa with her shoulders, "Teaching her fiancée how to ride a horse. Getting to wrap her arms around her if she loses balance. So yeah, I'm sure this is all _work_ related."

Spencer laughed heartily as Melissa turned to glare at their younger sibling. The glare was more amused than serious.

"I still can't believe you proposed to Charlotte." Spencer quipped.

Melissa's eyes softened, a true testament to how much their bond had strengthened. Had Spencer made a comment about one of Melissa's relationships years ago, the older brunette was sure to have gotten defensive. Now, however, she merely looked thoughtful.

"You'll just have to get used to the fact that your cousin is going to become your sister-in-law." Melissa's tone was haughty, but her eyes denoted her desire for acceptance. She understood all of what Charlotte had put Spencer through in the past, and simply wanted her sister to be happy for her, in spite of everything.

Spencer grabbed Melissa's hand, squeezing tightly.

"I'm looking forward to it."

Melissa smiled softly and turned away, not before Spencer caught the slight sparkle of tears in her eyes. Alex, brash as she was, didn't call her out on it. Instead, her lips turned upwards into a smirk as she stared at a figure behind Spencer.

"I reckon that's _your_ stallion, Spencer?"

Melissa snickered at the joke as Spencer turned around, meeting a familiar pair of light blue irises.

 _Toby was back in Rosewood_.

Spencer could vaguely make out Alex and Melissa giving her some excuse about going inside to fetch more water for the horses, but she didn't pay it any mind as she rushed towards Toby, engulfing the man in a firm hug. A sense of relief came over her as Toby returned the embrace. Though the two had went their separate ways just over three years ago, with not much communication between them since, Spencer was still glad that the air between them wasn't tense.

"Toby!" Spencer breathed as she pulled away, a genuine grin on her face, "When did you get back?"

Toby, ever the bashful man, placed his hands in his pockets, giving Spencer a sheepish smile.

"Not too long ago, actually." He admitted, "I saw Jason a while back, but spent most of my time backpacking. It gave me a lot of time to think."

Spencer nodded, drinking in every word. There was so much she wanted to say to him, so much she wanted to hear from him, but no words were leaving her lips. Toby, even after all this time, understood her well, taking her silence as a cue to continue talking.

"Do you…wanna go out for coffee some time?" He asked hesitantly. Once he saw Spencer's eyes widening, he was quick to try and recant his invitation, "I mean, only if you _want_ to, but if not, that's –"

"Toby." Spencer's voice halted Toby's rambling, and she was smiling, "I would love to."

As Toby returned her smile, a warm feeling settled in Spencer's chest. She ignored the knowing look Melissa gave her as she emerged from seemingly nowhere, ignored the distant catcalls Alex was making. For now, her life was in order, and she just couldn't find it in herself to complain.


	6. Alex

**A/N: Though this chapter is about Alex Drake, it does not feature any of the events of Season 7. As such, I chose to have her less resentful towards Spencer, and more resentful towards the adult figures in her life.**

Alex Drake had never had an especially easy life. She knew from an early age that her familial ties wouldn't come easy to her, and as a result, didn't have very high expectations. She would do whatever it took to survive. Throughout the years, she had become very intuitive, predicting the outcomes of situations before they even fully occurred. She just hadn't expected that meeting a fellow British person – a man by the name of Wren Kingston – at age 17 would change the course of her life forever.

 _ **Age 4**_

 _Alex Drake was four-years-old when her parents gave her away. They gave her no explanation, and it was all rather sudden. In fact, the only thing that she could really remember about the incident that led to her being brought to the orphanage was that she had been really angry. She couldn't remember_ _ **what**_ _she'd been angry at, just that she was angry enough to punch her brother in the nose._

 _She remembered the time-out she had been given as a result, as her parents coddled her brother. She remembered her anger fading into a feeling of guilt, and eventually detachment. It was with a blank stare that she watched her parents argue in front of her about what to do with her._

" _This isn't the first time, Francis." Her mother, Margery, had snapped, gesturing wildly towards a silent Alex, "What's she going to do next? Kill him?"_

 _Her father, Francis, was calmer, placing a gentle hand on her mother's shoulder, recoiling as the hand was shoved away._

" _Marge, I think you're being a bit too extreme." Francis murmured, stealing short glances at Alex ever so often, "And please, keep your voice down. I think you're scaring her."_

 _Her mother scoffed bitterly, and Alex knew instantly that she never wanted to hear the sound again as she curled up into herself. She figured that her mother was really upset, as evidenced by the veins popping out in her forehead and clenched fists. Though frightened, Alex worried for her mother's safety. She didn't want her mother to hurt herself over her._

" _I knew this would happen, Francis." Her mother's voice had lowered considerably, "With that crazy bitch as her –"_

" _Margery, stop talking, now!" Her father's irate tone resonated throughout the house._

 _With a last glance at Alex, her father led her mother out of the room, leaving Alex alone with conflicting thoughts in her head._

* * *

 _White. Alex registered the fact that the walls of her new home were white. No fancy decorations like the ones at her old home, but her father had told her not to worry._

" _My baby." Her father had knelt down to her level once they arrived at the place, taking her hands in one of his, "We're doing this for your own good."_

 _Alex frowned._

" _Doing what, daddy?"_

 _Alex was confused. Why was her father acting so weird all of a sudden? She had already said sorry for all the times she hit her brother, so she didn't understand why her mom was still so mad, or why her dad had brought her to this strange place._

 _Her father ruffled her hair gently, causing Alex's frown to go even further. What was going on?_

" _Goodbye, Alex." With that, her father walked away, out of the strange building, and out of her life for good._

 _She had waited days, months, even a year for him to come back for her, but he never did._

 _ **Age 5**_

 _Alex Drake was five years old the first time she realized that her parents hadn't wanted her. She'd been playing with the other children in her orphanage when she had heard her name being called. She was, by nature, a very charismatic child, so drawing her away from her activities was often a task that no faculty member at the orphanage wanted to engage in._

 _As Alex strode over to the person who called her – a kind, round-faced woman – she gave her a bright grin._

" _Yes, Mrs. Cooper?"_

" _Do you mind waiting in the green room for me, sweetie?"_

 _The green room was the term used for rooms where adoptions usually took place. Alex felt her heart beat rapidly in her chest as she nodded eagerly, making her way over to the room and sitting down in the most cushioned chair she could find there. The walls were thin, and as such, it was easy for Alex to hear the conversation that Mrs. Cooper was having outside of the room. She was so excited at the prospect of finally being taken in by a loving family that she hadn't considered the possibility of_ _ **not**_ _being adopted._

" _What do you mean they won't take her?" Alex could hear Mrs. Cooper's voice. The sweet woman's tone was unfamiliar to her, as she had never before heard her speak with such ire in her voice, "We've been over this –"_

" _I'm telling you, they just don't want her anymore." An unidentified man's voice sounded, causing Alex to frown. She didn't know which "her" he was speaking about, but felt sorry for the girl who wouldn't be adopted today. She was just glad that it wasn't her._

" _Everything was going so well." Mrs. Cooper continued, as if the man had never spoken, "They were interested in meeting her today, and they just cancel? There has to be a better explanation than what you're telling me."_

 _Alex could hear the man sigh, and she nervously began to wring her hands. A sinking feeling had engulfed her, and she didn't know what it meant, but for the life of her, she didn't know why she got the feeling that her day was about to be ruined._

" _There's nothing else." The man said nonchalantly, "They looked into her file, saw why her parents abandoned her, and bailed last minute. I don't know what else to tell you."_

 _Not wanting to hear any more of the conversation, Alex covered her ears as best as she could. She figured that if she covered them well enough, she could pretend that they were talking about the nice family that would adopt her instead of the mean people who wouldn't._

 _It wasn't long before Mrs. Cooper entered the green room, a frown upon her features. Upon seeing Alex, the frown changed into a sad smile, and she pulled the young girl into her arms. Alex tentatively hugged the older woman back._

" _Is it true?" Alex asked quietly once their embrace had ended, "That my parents didn't want me?"_

 _Tears entered Mrs. Cooper's eyes as she hugged Alex once again. Alex couldn't understand why_ _ **she**_ _was crying. It was_ _ **her**_ _life they were discussing. If anyone should be crying, it ought to be Alex._

" _They didn't deserve you, Alex." Was all Mrs. Cooper would say, and Alex resigned herself to patting her on the back. The older woman had been the only adult figure besides daddy who had ever shown her any sort of kindness, and she didn't want to see her so sad._

" _It's okay, Mrs. Cooper." Alex's voice was small, "I'm not sad, honest."_

 _Well, maybe_ _ **not**_ _honest, but if lying was what it would take to make her mother figure stop crying, Alex didn't mind one bit…even if she was sad that she was so unwanted._

 _ **Age 10**_

 _Alex was ten years old when Mrs. Cooper passed away. She was told that cancer was the cause, and Alex had never hated anything more. Mrs. Cooper had been the one person in the orphanage who didn't treat Alex as some sort of leper. The few friends she had when she was younger had all been adopted, and the remaining children had already formed cliques. They made it obvious that just as Alex's parents hadn't wanted her, she wasn't wanted in any of their friend groups._

" _You know, maybe it's a good thing that old Cooper died." One of the children, Casey, taunted Alex one Thursday afternoon. It was lunch time at the orphanage, and the adults in charge left them alone to socialize._

 _Alex gritted her teeth, clenching her hands into fists. She mentally counted to ten, a trick that Mrs. Cooper had taught her to keep her anger in check._

 _Apparently, it was an inherited trait._

" _Take that back." Alex settled for._

 _Casey gave her a cruel smirk, the look making the slightly older girl look devilish. Alex wanted to punch the look off of her face, but held back._

" _Why should I?" Casey grinned, shoving Alex in a manner that was far from playful, "If she were still alive, she'd still have_ _ **you**_ _as a charity case, and God knows that's a fate worse than death."_

 _The anger bubbled in Alex's stomach, her nails were digging so hard into her palms that she was certain that she'd broken skin. Her lips were twisted into a scowl, and it was a miracle that she didn't break any teeth with how hard she was gritting them._

" _I'm_ _ **not**_ _a charity case." Alex growled, though the voices in her head told her otherwise. Growing up, she didn't have very many positive influences, so it was easy for her self-esteem to be lower than was healthy._

 _Casey only laughed, leaning closer to Alex, until her lips were lined with the younger girl's right ear._

" _You will_ _ **never**_ _have a family." Casey whispered, her tone deceptively soft, "You're better off just running away. No one would look for you."_

 _Alex didn't remember the moment that her fist made contact with Casey' s jaw, or the sickening crunch that said jaw made as it was dislocated, but she_ _ **did**_ _remember the feeling of satisfaction she got deep within her gut._

 _Later that night, she overheard the administrative staff talking amongst themselves about Alex's "disruptive" behavior. About how "violent" she was and how much of a "threat" she was to the other children. How she had been "bullying" them for years. If Alex weren't too busy eavesdropping, she would've scoffed at the adjectives being used to describe her. It wasn't_ _ **her**_ _fault that she had to retaliate when the other children annoyed her, or picked fights with her. It wasn't_ _ **her**_ _fault that she fought back harder than any of the kids had initiated._

 _She remembered the staff talking about potentially moving her to a different orphanage, somewhere in Surrey. They said it would be best for everyone._

 _Well, they certainly didn't have to worry about her any longer. With Mrs. Cooper gone, there was nothing tethering her to that place._

 _With a confident stride and a determined look on her face, Alex Drake left the orphanage at age ten, determined to never be a victim to anyone ever again._

 _ **Age 15**_

 _Traversing the streets at a young age would be difficult for anyone. There were many things that could be potential threats, from pedophiles to murderers, and that didn't even begin to cover all of the things that could've threatened Alex's livelihood._

 _Yet, by the age of 15, Alex was confident that she had gotten a hang for that way of living._

 _She had a simple system. Never stay in the same place for too long. People were surprisingly willing to take in a young girl with no questions asked, and Alex couldn't be more grateful for her good luck. It seemed as if nothing could possibly go wrong for her, as if after her rough start to life, she was finally getting a break._

 _Of course, she should've known that she shouldn't have gotten too overconfident._

 _She remembered being on the move once again towards the beginning of the summer, a simple backpack filled with essentials on her back. She hadn't had anything to eat in hours, and as a result, decided to stop at small pub. She didn't have any money on her, so she knew that she was going to have to be careful while securing a meal._

 _When the employees of the pub were seemingly occupied, she snuck into the kitchens, immediately spotting an array of pastries, ranging from croissants to muffins. Hurrying over, Alex didn't bother wrapping any of the treats, instead choosing to shove them ungracefully into the empty portion of her bag. She knew that it wasn't the most sanitary thing to do, but it would have to be enough for now._

 _A firm hand on her shoulder caused her to freeze._

" _What do you think you're doing?" A harsh, male voice asked her._

* * *

" _She was trying to steal food from us, boss." The man from before told another man, never releasing his grip on her shoulder. He had brought her into the residence that was located above the pub. The "boss" was a middle aged balding man with dark, brooding eyes, "What do you want me to do with her?"_

 _The boss scrutinized Alex for a long moment, his gaze making her uneasy. After a while, he sighed, waving his hand at the other man._

" _Leave us."_

" _But boss –" The other man's complaint was cut off by the boss' glare, and with a resigned sigh, he left the residence, leaving Alex alone with the boss._

" _I know your kind." The boss gave her a small smile, one that Alex immediately wanted to slap away. He knew_ _ **nothing**_ _about her, "But first things first. You can address me as Giovanni."_

 _Alex took that as a cue for her to introduce herself._

"… _Alex."_

 _The boss – Giovanni – nodded in satisfaction, cracking his knuckles nonchalantly. The sound caused Alex to wince._

" _Now that pleasantries are out of the way, we can talk business." Giovanni said, his tone quiet, yet forceful, "You seem young. I wouldn't peg you for more than 14 or 15. Judging by the fact that you stole food instead of money, I can tell that you have a decent heart, but you're struggling. Probably orphaned too, hm?"_

 _The involuntary clench of Alex's jaw was answer enough for Giovanni._

" _Something tells me that you wouldn't want the authorities to catch wind of this." Giovanni continued, taking a few steps towards her, "You don't have much to lose, and yet, you still fear the loss of freedom."_

 _Alex didn't appreciate being spoken to in a condescending tone, and told Giovanni so. The man only chuckled._

" _Relax, dear." Giovanni smirked, "I'm not going to call the cops on you. We're too alike for that, you and I. I used to be just like you…which is why I'm willing to cut you some slack."_

 _Alex raised a brow._

" _Cut me some slack?"_

 _Giovanni nodded._

" _I own a pub, as you already know." Giovanni explained, "Some of my employees, for lack of a better term, are jackasses. Always getting drunk on the job, so I've been meaning to hire some fresh faces, and I think you'd suit the job just perfectly. Of course, you're a bit young, but there's always a way to work around that."_

 _Years of not having a stable adult figure in her life had made Alex wary, and Giovanni could see the apprehension on her face._

" _Look, kid. Think of it as a win-win for the both of us." Giovanni said smugly, the corners of his lips raising once more into an amused expression, "I get some decent help – as long as you agree to my terms – and you get a paying job, a roof over your head, and I_ _ **don't**_ _call the cops on you. How much better could this get for you? So what do you say? Do we have a deal?"_

 _It was then that Alex truly felt the weight of the stolen pastries in her bag. Truth be told, she wasn't sure how much longer she could subsist on her own, and Giovanni didn't seem like too shady of a guy._

 _Based on the pleased look on Giovanni's face, it was evident that he already knew what her answer would be._

 _ **Age 17**_

 _Alex was 17-years-old when she realized that the people who she thought were her parents weren't, in fact, her parents. By this age, she had moved from home to home, never allowing herself to get too attached before moving on._

 _At this point in her life, she had secured a temporary home with Giovanni, the owner of a quaint pub. The lighting wasn't the best there, the patrons could get pretty rowdy, and the pay wasn't the best, but it was more than Alex could've hoped for. As long as she worked lengthy, exhausting shifts and picked up the slack of the regular employers, she could have a roof over her head. As school was out of the question for her, she made due with what she could get._

 _She remembered the day she met Wren Kingston clearly. The skies were gray, as if it were about to rain, and there was a slight draft making its way throughout the bar. As it was only midday, the pub was crowded, and as a person who'd never had the best temperament, Alex was close to unleashing her frustration on the next drunk person who leered at her._

" _May I have a vodka soda please?" A man's voice came from behind her._

 _The man had spoken with the refined accent of a person who had been properly educated, and Alex rolled her eyes. Her back was still to the customer, and with a fake smile plastered on her face, she spun around to face him._

 _Brown eyes. Brown hair. No beard but the slightest hint of stubble. This man was different from her usual patron. A small smile curled on Alex's lips. Maybe this man would make her day interesting, yet._

 _What she hadn't expected was for him to stare at her as if seeing a poltergeist._

" _Spencer?" The man breathed in disbelief._

 _Alex raised a judgmental eyebrow. It wasn't every day that someone came into the pub and mistook her for someone else. The most she would get from her drunken patrons was the insistence that she had the appearance of a fallen angel, but that was more out of sheer stupidity instead of genuine bewilderment._

" _Not sure who you're going on about." Alex said firmly, passing the man's drink to him, "But if you're trying to impress me, referring to me as some other chick isn't a great start."_

 _The man shook his head, more of an attempt to clear his own head than to dismiss Alex's words._

" _No, it's me, Spencer." The man continued, "I'm Wren, remember?"_

 _Alex shook her head._

" _Pretty sure I'd remember if I'd met someone named after a pretty bird."_

 _The man – Wren – gaped at her, and Alex turned back to serve her other patrons. After a while, she got the distinct sense that someone was staring at her so she turned back around, stunned to see Wren still rooted to the same spot._

" _Can I help you?"_

 _Wren frowned, slipping a piece of paper across the bar counter to her._

" _That's my address." Wren backed away slowly, never taking his gaze off of Alex, "Meet me after your shift ends."_

 _With that, he left, leaving Alex to question his nerve. Of all the people that she served on a daily basis, never had anyone been so bold as to invite her to their flat without having the decency to escort her there. As she heard her boss bark after her for slacking off, Alex sighed._

 _This was going to be another annoying day._

* * *

 _In hindsight, going to a random man's flat wasn't the smartest – or even the safest – idea, but Alex had never lived a very reasonable life anyway. It's not as if she was careless, though. She made sure that she carried a pocket knife with her at all times, in case she ever needed to defend herself. Roaming the streets for years had made her street smart, and she knew her way around using anything as a weapon._

" _I'm so glad you decided to come." Wren hugged her once she arrived at his flat, as if they were old friends. Alex hesitantly patted his back in return, still weary._

" _Why am I here Wren?" Alex didn't waste any time asking._

 _Wren gave her a sheepish grin._

" _Before I answer that, at least let me know your name."_

 _Alex rolled her eyes at Wren's blatant attempt at flirting with her._

" _Alex Drake."_

 _Wren nodded in contemplation, and Alex couldn't help but be curious about what subject he was lamenting on._

" _What is it?" Alex asked impatiently._

 _It was only then that Wren turned back to look at her._

" _Allow me to make some phone calls." He murmured, "This can't just be a coincidence."_

 _Alex didn't bother asking him_ _ **which**_ _coincidence he was speaking of._

* * *

 _As it so happened, Margery and Francis Sheffield weren't her biological parents. That made it easier for Alex to understand why they had abandoned her at an orphanage without so much as a backwards glance. Though she had considered_ _ **them**_ _family, it was obvious to her that she had never truly been a member of_ _ **their**_ _family._

 _Wren, in hindsight, was a decent guy. He certainly was attractive – and attracted to her for that matter – so she didn't feel bad in the slightest when she used him to get information on her_ _ **real**_ _family._

 _Peter Hastings and Mary Drake._

 _Those were the names of her birth parents, the ones who had left her to be adopted by another family, in a different country from the one in which they resided. Not only this, but she also had siblings that she never knew of – Spencer and Melissa Hastings as sisters, and Jason DiLaurentis as her lone brother – and Charlotte and Alison DiLaurentis as cousins. With this information in mind, she used her charms to convince Wren to get in touch with her family._

 _Jason had been unreachable, which Wren insisted was a norm for the blond man. Alison was at the center of controversy, one that involved Spencer and their mutual friends. As such, it wouldn't be the right time to force a family reunion of sorts upon the two of them. Charlotte and Melissa had been different stories._

 _Alex met Charlotte first, and was immediately taken aback by the older woman's appearance. Though she had blonde hair and gray-blue eyes, it was evident to Alex that they were, in fact, related. Their facial structures were just too similar._

 _Meeting Charlotte had been a breath of fresh air for Alex. She finally had someone in her life who could relate to her. Charlotte, like Alex, had spent many years away from her own family, and as a result, hadn't had the chance to develop many meaningful relationships in her lifetime. They both had an interest in Patsy Kline, and the time Alex spent talking with Charlotte left her with the feeling that they had known each other all of their lives._

 _Good times came to an end when Charlotte had to return to the States, insisting that she had unfinished business to handle. She wouldn't give her any details, other than the idea that Rosewood – the town where she lived – was a dangerous place to be, too dangerous for Alex to visit. As Charlotte had given her no reason to distrust her in the past, she didn't question her, choosing to stay in London._

 _Meeting Melissa had been even more of a culture shock for Alex. Unlike Charlotte, Melissa had raven hair and dark brown eyes, much like Alex herself. The resemblance between her and her older sister was uncanny, and enough proof for Alex to realize that she really did have siblings._

 _Though considerably more uptight than Charlotte, Melissa was easy to talk to. Her love of literature and horror made her relatable. For the second time in her life, she truly felt loved._

 _Like Charlotte, Melissa had to depart to the States soon after meeting Alex, but not without unintentionally revealing her relationship with Charlotte. If Alex were being honest, their relationship reminded her of something out of a Shakespearean play. She only hoped that unlike Hamlet and Ophelia, unlike Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, – unlike the majority of Shakespearean couples, for that matter, – they'd have a happy ending._

* * *

 _Alone once more, Alex figured that if she had already met some of her long-lost family, she may as well meet the mother who gave birth to her. Getting in contact with Mary was easier than she thought it would be, and as she sat across from her in the pub she worked at, she couldn't help but marvel at how much like Charlotte she looked, probably as a result of both Mary and her sister Jessica being twins._

 _Alex had waited a long time for this moment, and didn't see the point in wasting any time._

" _You sold me for money and a ticket out of a mental institution." Alex said quietly, careful not to let her tone betray her feelings of abandonment. She had made it this far without a proper mother figure, and she refused to show any weakness to a woman who had given her up for her own selfish needs._

" _You don't know what Radley was like." Mary insisted, and upon seeing the incredulous look on Alex's face, she backtracked, "I thought I was giving you a better chance at life. I knew that I was in no condition to raise_ _ **myself**_ _, much less two babies. I thought I was giving you the world by letting a wealthy family adopt you."_

 _Alex snorted._

" _Have you never read a fairytale?"_

 _At the comparison, Mary winced. Alex took grim satisfaction in the look of guilt that crossed her mother's dark blue eyes._

" _Look, there's nothing I can do to change the past, and you don't know how many times I've wished that things could be different." Mary's voice trembled, "But I was hoping…that we could start over. Just give me one more chance to be a mother to you. A proper one."_

 _Alex weighed her options carefully. On one hand, she still felt betrayed by the older woman. She had practically_ _ **sold**_ _her after all. On the other hand, she longed for the maternal influence that she hadn't had since before Mrs. Cooper died. With a sigh, she gave her mother her answer._

" _This won't come easy to me." Alex admitted, "You can't just expect me to let you into my life so simply, much less accept you as my mother."_

 _At the crestfallen look on Mary's face, Alex finished her statement._

" _But that doesn't mean I'm not willing to try."_

 _ **Age 18**_

 _Charlotte had been caught. Alex remembered Melissa calling her frantically, telling her of how the blonde woman had been placed into the care of a mental institution – Welby. She also remembered Melissa telling her not to worry about it, telling her that she'd handle everything, but she was sick of waiting, sick of everyone telling her how she should and shouldn't feel._

 _She'd made up her mind – she was going to Rosewood._

* * *

 _If she was being honest with herself, Welby was a lot like the orphanage she spent the better part of her life in. Invasive staff, who tried to appear sympathetic and helpful. The walls all painted one color. Most of the residents looking pale and depressed. Being at Welby didn't help the unhappy memories that Alex had grown up with. Yet, as she signed the sheet for the visitor's list, she couldn't bring herself to care._

 _She was here for Charlotte._

" _I should've known you wouldn't listen to the both of us." Charlotte's voice, though tired, sounded amused as Alex walked into her room. Alex raised an eyebrow and her cousin continued, "We tell you to stay in England until everything's resolved, and you come here nonetheless."_

 _Alex scowled._

" _You're my family, Charlotte. I wasn't going to leave you in here to rot."_

 _Charlotte smiled gently, her expression telling the tale of a person who'd been through many trials, as she opened her arms wide._

" _Come here."_

 _Alex would be lying if she said that she didn't derive any comfort from her cousin's embrace. She would be lying if she said that no tears fell from her eyes onto the cotton fabric of Charlotte's sweater. She would be lying if she said that she hadn't missed her._

" _I'm gonna get you out of here." Alex declared strongly as she pulled back from the embrace, wiping her eyes furiously, "I promise."_

 _Charlotte's smile turned sad._

" _You know, Melissa said the same thing when she was here yesterday." Charlotte recalled, moving to sit pretzel style on her bed, hands folded on her lap, "And I'm going to tell you the same thing I told her, and the same thing I told Ali. I'll be fine. Welby isn't Radley."_

 _Alex shook her head desperately. She couldn't stomach the idea of letting one of the only family members she'd come to know stay in a mental facility,_ _ **again**_ _._

" _But your father –"_

" _Is responsible for a lot of my problems. Yes, I know, Alex." Charlotte insisted, leaning over to take Alex's hands into her own, "But that doesn't change the fact that I still need help. The years at Radley took a toll on my mind, and though my father spent years being my puppet-master, there's still the part of my brain that doesn't regret anything I did."_

 _Charlotte paused._

" _And I'm finally at the point in my life where I can admit that I need help."_

 _Tears gathered in Alex's eyes again, and Charlotte reached out to brush them away._

" _Look, don't worry about me, okay?" Charlotte pulled Alex into another hug, allowing the brunette to rest her head on her shoulder, "At least this way, if you ever need me, I'll be in the same place and not an entire ocean away."_

 _Alex let out a choked laugh at Charlotte's attempt to lighten the situation. Her cousin really was one of the strongest people she knew. Charlotte pushed her away gently and grasped her chin, forcing her to look at her – gray-blue eyes meeting brown._

" _If you're really that concerned about me, stay in Rosewood for a while." Charlotte encouraged, "You've always wanted to study criminology, right? I heard that they're doing a couple courses like that at Hollis."_

" _You know I can't afford that, Char."_

 _Charlotte rolled her eyes._

" _There's always the Carissimi Group."_

 _Alex scoffed._

" _Don't they freeze your assets once you're a ward of the state?"_

 _Charlotte smirked._

" _I've placed you as one of the beneficiaries." Charlotte cracked her knuckles at the thought of her own genius, "Consider it my thanks for always accepting me."_

* * *

 _Taking Charlotte's advice, Alex enrolled in summer classes at Hollis. It really was fascinating just how many branches of criminology could be studied, when she thought about it. School had never been a priority for Alex in the past, but she was grateful for the change._

 _On the way out of the registration office, she abruptly bumped into a short brunette, almost causing her to topple onto the ground. She had just barely managed to wrap an arm around her waist to keep her upright._

" _I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was…Alex?" The brunette seemed surprised to see her._

 _Alex immediately recognized her as Aria Montgomery, one of Spencer's friends. Though her twin hadn't been ready to meet her yet, Melissa had been kind enough to share relics of Spencer's past with her._

" _I think you're the first person to not immediately confuse me with Spencer." Alex was impressed._

 _Aria raised one of her hands, pointing at Alex's face._

" _Spencer has a birthmark on the opposite side from where yours is." Aria pointed out astutely, her pretty hazel eyes shining._

 _Wait, pretty?_

 _Alex could admit to herself, if no one else, that upon meeting her, she was very much attracted to Aria. The thought brought a smile to Alex's face, and neither made mention of the fact that Alex hadn't removed her arm from Aria's waist._

" _I think that we'll be very close." She murmured confidently, a bright grin on her face._

 _Sure enough, she and Aria hit it off. Incidentally, they were in the same criminology classes, which Alex found very intriguing, given the fact that Aria would be attending Savannah College of Art and Design in the fall as an English major. The two of them did practically everything together, from studying, to drinking coffee at The Brew. It truly was an enigma how Alex hadn't managed to meet any of Spencer's other friends, given how much time she was spending with Aria._

 _Not that she minded in the slightest. She enjoyed every second that she could spend with the quirky brunette, who was quickly becoming the closest thing to a best friend that she'd ever had outside of family._

 _The friendship dynamic took a drastic turn the closer it got to the fall semester. Aria would soon be leaving for college, leaving Rosewood, her life, and Alex behind. Somehow, the thought just didn't sit well with Alex, who had never gotten over the feelings of abandonment she'd had since childhood._

" _It'll only be a few months, Al." Alex loved it when Aria called her by her nickname. It gave her the feeling that there was someone in the world aside from family who cared about her existence, "I'm sure you'll be able to live without me until then."_

 _Alex sighed dramatically, flopping ungracefully onto Aria's bed. They were in Aria's room, with the rest of her house being quiet, as her parents and younger brother were out running errands. She put on her best puppy dog face, lower lip jutting out and all._

" _But I'll miss you." Alex pouted, nudging Aria playfully, grinning as the shorter girl rolled her eyes, "Who else am I gonna complain to all day?"_

 _Aria tapped her chin in mock thought._

" _There's always Melissa."_

 _Alex snorted._

" _It's not the_ _ **same**_ _, Ar." Alex insisted, leaning up and wrapping arm around the shorter girl's shoulders, "We're Team…there's no good way of putting our names together, is there?"_

 _Aria laughed in earnest, leaning over to hug Alex tightly._

" _You'll be fine." Aria declared, placing a kiss on Alex's nose._

 _The action prompted both girls to freeze. The air between them suddenly felt thick, the tension brought on by such a simple action. Alex's eyes flickered briefly to Aria's lips before she drew them to her eyes, only to find that the shorter girl's eyes were on her own lips. Alex gulped._

 _Which one of them moved first was something that Alex couldn't tell, but it didn't matter once their lips touched. The contact was brief, yet it sent Alex reeling. Aria pulled back swiftly, placing both hands over her mouth as she gasped._

" _I am_ _ **so**_ _–" Aria didn't even finish her statement as she backed away from Alex, moving towards her door, "I'm just gonna go now."_

 _With that, Aria left the room, and judging by the sound of a door slam, she left the house as well. Despite everything, Alex laughed heartily, bringing two fingers up to her still tingling lips._

 _Aria was so cute. Didn't she remember that it was her own house they were in?_

 _ **Age 20**_

 _To Alex's dismay, after the fateful kiss between her and Aria, the two didn't keep in contact, other than a few text messages, but even those were few and far in between. She tried not to let it get to her too much, but that was easier said than done._

 _As a way of trying to get over her heartbreak, she decided to visit Melissa in London. The older brunette, though always occupied with her own troubles, never turned her away._

" _Stay for as long as you need." Melissa had told her upon her arrival, and Alex fully intended on taking her sister up on the offer._

 _What she hadn't been expecting, however, was to finally meet her twin, Spencer. Granted, it happened completely accidentally – Spencer had visited Melissa to gain comradeship after her own heartbreak – but it still meant everything to her. She felt the same sense of amazement as when she had met Melissa and Charlotte for the first time, but there was something different about meeting another relative – about meeting a_ _ **twin**_ _._

 _By the time Spencer's tenure in London had come to a close, Alex could genuinely say that she had gotten a bond that she would never be able to replace with her older twin. They were two sides of the same coin, and Alex found it ironic that the two of them had the same parental issues – Spencer had been hesitant to meet their mother, Mary, while Alex had been hesitant to meet their father, Peter._

" _How about this." Alex suggested over breakfast one morning, "Meeting each other turned out pretty well, so why don't we give our parents a chance?"_

 _Alex could see the uncertainty written on her twin's face, and she just couldn't get used to the fact that there was another person in the world who looked so much like her._

" _Putting all the lies aside, we need closure." Alex didn't know who she was trying to convince more, herself or Spencer, but Spencer's resolute nod gave her all the confidence she needed._

* * *

 _The Hastings home was very lavish, Alex had to admit to herself. Before she could talk herself out of it, she knocked rapidly on the door. It didn't take long before she got an answer._

 _Tall, dark haired, and green eyed – the man who answered the door was none other than her father, Peter Hastings._

" _Spencer's home." Peter called out to someone in the house as he ushered Alex in, causing Alex's heart to beat rapidly in her chest._

 _Within moments of officially entering the home, she was taken aback by the delectable smell of lasagna. The inner décor of the house was just as extravagant as that of the outside, but Alex couldn't dwell on that fact for too long, as a dark haired woman emerged from the kitchen. Alex figured that this was her father's wife, Veronica. Veronica barely glanced at her for a few seconds before small frown appeared on her face. Alex could feel her palms sweating to match her anxiousness, so she settled for rubbing them on her jeans._

" _This isn't Spencer." Veronica said quietly, stepping a little closer to Peter and Alex, "The birthmark is on the wrong side."_

 _Peter took a closer look at Alex, his eyes squinting in concentration. Under his scrutiny, Alex felt slightly uncomfortable. What if he didn't like her? What if he instantly preferred Spencer over her? Her self-doubting thoughts came to a screeching halt as Peter pulled her into a hug, prompting her to blink in confusion. Slowly, her arms came to wrap around her father as tears prickled her eyes. His acceptance of her was unspoken, but still very much clear._

 _As they pulled back from one another, Peter placed both palms on her shoulders._

" _You must be Alex." He said finally, after a moment's pause, "I'm so glad to finally be meeting you."_

 _At her father's words, a surge of anger bubbled in her chest. Had he really forgotten that he was part of the reason why she had been left a ward of the state in the first place?_

" _You left me in_ _ **that**_ _place and took Spencer." Alex reminded him bitterly, "Didn't really think you had space for me in your perfect family."_

 _She tried to not sound resentful, – really, she did – but the raw emotion in her voice was unmistakable. Hearing her words gave her father pause as his hands slowly returned to his sides, unsure of where to place them. Veronica, noticing her husband's silence, continued for him._

" _We didn't know that Mary was having twins." Veronica's kind tone was maternal, and Alex found herself soothed by it, "Everything just happened so fast. Even the doctors were stunned by it, and no one ever contacted us to tell us that there had been another baby."_

 _Alex bit her lip, still apprehensive._

" _What would you have done if you had known?"_

" _We never would have left you there." It appeared that her father found his voice once more, the conviction clear as Veronica nodded her agreement, "We would have raised you alongside Spencer and Melissa, and happily played referees to any arguments the three of you had."_

 _A chuckle left Alex's lips at Peter's attempt at humor, despite her mental insistence to not show any emotion. The explanation that her father and his wife had given her gave her the sense that she wasn't unwanted, as she'd been led to believe for most of her life, but it would still take time to heal years-worth of neglect._

" _I just took a lasagna out of the oven." Veronica's voice brought Alex out of her quiet musings, "Why don't you stay for dinner, and we can continue this discussion. Your father and I would love to get to know you, if you'll let us."_

 _Alex was being given a choice. Stay and connect with long-lost family, or leave and shut them out. Her mind was already made up._

" _It would be my pleasure."_

 **Current Day – Age 23**

Alex Drake hated horses. Well, not exactly the creatures themselves, by the excretory waste that they nonchalantly released at any time, without any consideration for who would be stuck cleaning it.

Given her luck, _of course_ Alex was the one who had to clean it.

When she had first agreed to work for Melissa on her horse ranch, shortly after turning 23, she expected something a bit more grandeur than being tasked with cleaning fecal matter. Jason, their brother, was off exploring the world in the name of the Carissimi Group, eager to satiate his wanderlust. Spencer, who had decided on the legal route, was only a volunteer at the ranch, securing the more glorious job of merely brushing the manes of the horses.

If she was being honest, Alex thought that Melissa was finally getting back at her for revealing the nature of her relationship with Charlotte to Spencer six years ago. Not that it had been the world's best kept secret anyways (God knows those two were _beyond_ obvious), but the point still remained.

Just as Alex slipped on gloves to carry out what she dubbed "manure duty," her text alert went off. Sighing in relief, she took off her gloves and checked her phone, her eyes widening at the message she received:

 _Lunch at The Brew? I'm buying._

 _Aria_

The small brunette hadn't messaged her in a while, much less to invite her to lunch.

"You should go." Melissa's voice came out of nowhere, startling Alex to the point that she nearly dropped her phone. She turned around, only to see her oldest sister leaning over her shoulder, blatantly reading the text to herself, "I can handle the ranch for today."

Rather than arguing with her sister, or calling her out for the smug smirk on her features, Alex thanked her blessings and left.

* * *

"I didn't think you'd want to see me." Was the first thing Aria said to her over coffee. The two were seated in the couch area of The Brew, and the awkward air was one that Alex instantly hated.

Alex gestured to her phone, shaking it teasingly.

"I've been here." She shot back, " _You're_ the one who's been ghosting _me_ , remember?"

Aria looked down, guilt shining in her hazel eyes.

"You know, I dated a guy named Liam from work for a while?" Aria stated abruptly, her head still bowed, "He was a nice guy. Really good at editorial stuff and –"

"Did you really invite me here to tell me about your love life?" Alex asked her drily, unable to keep the slight bite out of her tone. She didn't mean to sound so snappy, but the near silent treatment she had received from the short brunette after their kiss still stung.

"It didn't work out." Aria continued, her eyes now meeting Alex's, as if she had never been interrupted, "By all means, it should have. I apparently have a type – dark hair, dark eyes, and a charismatic –"

"Aria –" Alex's patience was dwindling.

"But he wasn't you!" Aria huffed, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly, daring Alex to interrupt her again, which she didn't, "He had raven hair and dark brown eyes, but he just wasn't _you_."

The tension that surrounded the two of them was one of a different nature, one slightly more intimate than the one from before. Aria sighed and ran a hand through her hair, looking at Alex with desperate eyes.

"I never forgot the kiss we had, you know?" Aria continued quietly, "It was so new to me and…I panicked. It threw me for a loop, and I've never been the best at facing things that completely throw me off my game."

Despite the emotions running through her head, Alex's lips turned up into a smirk, and she leaned a bit towards Aria.

"I throw you off your game?"

Aria rolled her eyes.

"Is that the _only_ thing you got out of everything that I just said?"

"It's the most _important_ thing."

The gentle smile, coupled by the reddening of Aria's cheeks, gave Alex some hope. She reached over and squeezed one of Aria's hands, gently brushing her thumb over the short girl's knuckles.

"If it makes you feel any better, you kinda throw me off my game too." Alex murmured honestly.

Aria seemed to be lost in thought, her eyes taking in their clasped hands before snapping back to Alex's eyes.

"Can we…start over?" Aria asked timidly, "As more than friends this time?"

Alex pretended to think, tapping her chin mockingly.

"I don't know." She grinned, squeezing her companion's hand, "It generally takes me a lot more than one cup of coffee to get _really_ serious with someone."

Aria returned her grin, and Alex felt a great sense of relief engulf her. It was by no means a love declaration, but it was a start. After 23 years, she finally had her family intact, and maybe – _just maybe_ – she could get a fresh start with a certain brunette.


End file.
